Asleep on the Job

Pastor and author Pete Wilson was sharing about a recent flight back home where an older couple sat in the middle and window seats on his row. He said that after the wife found out he was a local pastor, she began to ask many questions and tell him of their past church history. She shared that they hadn’t been in church in many years.

The part of the story that struck me most was when Pete said as the wife talked on with him about church, the husband, seated in between them, fell asleep and slept through the entire conversation. The point I am about to make now veers from how Pete used the story in his message.

Isn’t it interesting that, while his wife was pouring out her heart about spiritual things and church, the husband checked out and went to sleep? What if he had engaged at the same level? What if he would have led and asked Pete more questions? What if he had heard God’s Spirit calling them back into His fold and the next day they attended Pete’s church?

As he went on teaching, I couldn’t escape it—all the “what-if’s” of a sleeping husband and a needy wife.

The point and the probing question for us today is … where am I … where are you … sleeping through something God is trying to do while our wives need us to engage and lead, rather than deny, ignore, and avoid … or fall asleep?

Pete’s encounter with the couple was such a stark, modern-day visual of Adam in the Garden, missing the opportunity and hurting his world.

We have to constantly remind ourselves to wake up. Listen. Engage. Act. Now.

For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her… —Ephesians 5:25 NLT