Don’t Hit the Snooze Button On Life

I love the snooze button.

I’ve been a snoozer since I was given the responsibility of setting my own alarm clock in the 5th grade. I’ve been known to set my alarm for two hours prior to the time I actually have to get up. Every nine minutes my hand can fly to that button so fast. Why disrupt my sleep? I like telling myself that it’s not time to wake up yet. I reward myself with broken sleep for the pure satisfaction of staying warm in bed.

And why not? My bed is comfortable. There are no demands and no conflicts. My bed is safe. I can find excuse after excuse to extend my sleep.

“I don’t need a shower today.” SNOOZE.
“I can wear a hat.” SNOOZE.
“Who needs breakfast?” SNOOZE.

I wish this was a practice kept to the morning hours, but the truth is that too often I want to hit the snooze button on my life. I even want to make excuses when it comes to my spiritual life.

“I’ll serve when my schedule gets less crazy.”
“Next week I’ll devote some time to my relationship with God.”
“Tomorrow I am going to start reading the Word.”

There is a problem with this line of thinking. I don’t believe procrastination is a skill worth developing in any part of our lives, much less our spiritual walk.

I think many of us are stuck hitting the snooze button rather than living the life Jesus came to give. In the words of my mom on many a Saturday morning, “Stop sleeping the day away!”

“…You do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then it vanishes.” (James 4:14, NIV)

It can be tempting to live life in neutral, playing it safe right now and planning to make our days count one day down the road. When I spoke at the Pine Cove Junior High Weekend just a few weeks ago, we spent the entire weekend talking about living wide awake. I know when I was in junior high it was incredibly easy to convince myself that I could wait until I was older to really start living and stop hitting the snooze button.

Even as I graduated from high school and then attended college, I kept wondering when my life was really going to start. But life does not begin with a diploma, a career, or a date. The truth is that life started the moment we determined to follow Jesus and surrendered our lives to Him. We are waiting for something that has already been given: life to the full!

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10, NIV)

Jesus said those words to a crowd full of living, breathing people, and He says them to you and I today.

We have a brief portion of time in which to live a life worthy of the calling we received. (Ephesians 4:1) So the question I have for you and I today is simple: What are you doing with your time?

Did you know that the average American spends nine years of their life in front of a television? Nine years! That’s incredible. I know from experience how tempting it can be to live life vicariously through others. We read status updates, follow photos, watch storylines, and dive into fiction. But what about the story you are telling with your own life? Are you making this time count, or are you playing it safe?

Apart from Jesus, there is no life. But with Jesus, we can experience life upon life. We start living a great story by living our lives rather than waiting for life to happen to us.

While the world may say “Wake me up when it’s all over,” God has given us entirely different marching orders, and we would be wise to listen up, wake up, and get moving!

“Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” (Ephesians 5:14, NIV)

Editor’s Note: Ginger is a former Pine Cove staff member who worked summers at the Ranch from 2001-2004 and full-time 2004-2006. She is now a speaker and author who has spoken at numerous Pine Cove Weekends, including the Timbers’ Junior High Weekend this month.