Beautiful Dreamer, Wake Unto Me

Guest column from Rev. Michael Brooks of Siluria Baptist Church, Alabaster AL

The cardiologist at my annual appointment asked if I’d ever had a sleep study. I said no. He suggested I do and see what we learn. What I learned is that you sleep very little during a sleep study.

The kindly attendant wired me from head to toe and put a large control monitor around my neck like I was about to board the space shuttle. He promised to get me tucked in by 10 p.m. but it was closer to 11. Then he woke me around 3 a.m. to do part two—the mask. I’d dreaded this part of the study, but it really wasn’t so bad. But he woke me again at 5:30 a.m. and said we were done. I was terribly fatigued. I thought I’d take a short nap that afternoon but didn’t regain consciousness for two hours.

I don’t have a follow-up consult for several more weeks, so I have no clue what they’ll say. I hope the technician will say I’m sleeping well and should continue to do so every night.

I remember the late Norman Vincent Peale in a sermon lamenting the rampant anxiety in our society.

“We’re a troubled generation,” he said, “and it’s even hard to get a good nap in church anymore!”

He was joking, of course. My experience has been different. It’s been my observation that some folk get a good nap during my sermons. This is a small contribution I make to distraught people who need a few moments of rest.

One of the great New Testament stories is about Eutychus, the young man who fell asleep in church.

On his third journey Paul returned to Troy to preach. This is where he’d earlier had his well-known Macedonian vision—the call to take the gospel to Greece. On Sunday night he preached to a room full of believers. Eutychus sat on a window ledge, either for lack of space in the room or for ventilation. Whatever the case, he fell asleep and tumbled to the ground. Paul rushed down and pronounced that the young man was safe. He either miraculously survived the fall, or God miraculously healed him.

Whatever the case, Paul, undeterred, went back and continued preaching until dawn.

It gives me great comfort that this young man was safe, but also to realize when people fall asleep during my sermons, they did so when the greatest of all New Testament preachers preached, too.

Of course I’m being light-hearted.

The redemptive message we proclaim on Sunday morning has great significance.

Perhaps the best worship preparation is for all churchgoers to forego late-night outings or TV on Saturday nights so we can give God our best on Sunday mornings.

"Reflections" is a weekly faith column written by Michael J. Brooks, pastor of the Siluria Baptist Church, Alabaster, Alabama. The church's website is siluriabaptist.com. Rev. Brooks has graciously given ALPolitics.com permission to repost his regular pastoral column here.

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