"A Day in the Life"
Ahh! What a way to start the week! You only meant to sleep for 5 for more minutes, and now you're running an hour behind. Ok, time to take a quick shower, and eat breakfast on the way. You'll just have to push it on Parmer Lane and make up for lost time. Meetings, phone calls, messages piled up while you were out to lunch. Oh, where's your old jar of aspirin, filled with everything but aspirin. Good 3 antacids still left. It seems like you didn't get anything accomplished at work today, and now you're back in the car again. You're leaving 30 minutes late to make up for getting to work an hour late - but, hey, you get more done in less time than most folks. Looks like it's going to be an abbreviated workout at the gym today. Completely burnt out, it's time to head home. The wife's already fed the baby, and now he's having quiet time. You know, infants don't just fall asleep after being tossed in the air by their Dad for 15 minutes. Oh well, we'll have family time tomorrow night. It was a rough day at work. You just want to watch TV for 15 minutes. Oh this is your favorite show! "Wow the news is on already." "I just want to see what the weather is going to be like." … Well, the wife has gone to bed already. Seems like I was supposed to do something tonight, but I'm so tired. I can't stay up any longer. I will have to do it tomorrow night, whenever I remember whatever it was that I was supposed to be doing.
Ok, so you were only 30 minutes late to the office this time. But there's so much work piled up that you got to stay really late tonight. Too much work. Why has it piled up all of the sudden? Clearly your potential is not getting fully recognized. They keep piling up busy work for you, instead of giving you real, challenging work that only you can do. Guess you'll have to run through Taco Bell while on the moonlit drive home. Looks like everybody is already in bed. Things are tough now, but you'll make up for it on the weekend.
Wednesdays are always rough. Long day at work - still tying to catch up. Have to meet the family at church tonight. Maybe you'll have McDonald's tonight on the way to church - but that's ok, because you're going to workout extra at the gym tomorrow afternoon. Oh, it's time to focus our minds on spiritual things. I don't know why this teacher is so boring. He needs to make the class more practical, and that same person has to make comments every time. They must like hearing themselves speak. Invitation song? Wasn't there an invitation in there somewhere? - And now the wife wants to get home early, so the baby can get a good night's sleep. You'll just have to socialize next time. It's so hard to get to bed before 11 pm on Wednesday nights, and you wanted to get up early tomorrow too.
Ugh, the alarm clock must be wrong. The time is right, but it feels like 2 hours earlier. So much work to be done - you have to force yourself. Even the car seems reluctant to move this early. You'll let the window down for a second, just to let the morning breeze freshen you up. The cool wind feels good hitting your morning eyes. You got in early and hope to get a lot done today. Why is everybody looking at your hair? You need to hurry, if you're going to get everything done in time to go to the gym. Cell phone is ringing. Oh no, your wife is checking to make sure that you are already on your way to the soccer game. You really need to spend more time thinking about the kids and being attentive to their needs. Oh-oh, the boss has an extra assignment for you. This is a one-time emergency that will win the company thousands of dollars. Maybe this will help you get your well-deserved, but belated, promotion. Maybe then you can stop paying the accumulating interest on your credit cards and actually make progress paying off your debt that's piled up. You make a difficult call. You go to the game. It's hard to understand why your wife and son seem disappointed. Don't they know how hard you work and the sacrifices you make? Well, after promising to be more attentive next time, you explain that you will have to work late to make up for coming home early to attend the game, even if you were only present for the last 15 minutes. Another long night ahead …
Finally, it's Friday! Another "hard to wake up" morning, but it's nothing that a little caffeine and ginseng can't cure. If you could just figure out how to lose 15 pounds, you'd probably sleep and feel a lot better. Work goes well. Everybody seems talkative. They're also glad it's Friday. After asking one of your buddy's about his night classes, you think that one of these days, you will finish your degree. But you need to get some other stuff done first. … Seems to have been a slow day for some reason. You didn't get much done, but neither did anybody else. … You realize that it was your day to pick up the infant from daycare. Your wife just had to get her nails done today. If you could find your Palm Pilot, you'd make a note about getting a day planner, or something to help you get organized. Daycare workers seem upset for having to stay late again. You explain it was one-time accident, and you just accidentally forgot. It's hard to understand why some people can't accept that staying late occasionally is just part of their job. Seems to you like so many people don't appreciate their jobs. Your wife has called ahead and ordered pizza. You decide to make tonight into a fun family night, so you stop by your local Blockbusters and rent a movie - actually three, because they were running a special. After the first movie is finished, you put the kids to bed. Your wife is so tired that she falls asleep on the couch with the infant, while you put the two older ones to bed. You curl up across from her, in the recliner, and quickly fall asleep too.
It's hard to believe the middle child has already learned to turn the television on. You didn't realize that Rug Rats came on at 7 in the morning, but your 5 year old daughter knows. Well, the wife fixes pancakes and you finally get to wrestle in the floor with the kids for a few minutes. But, then you have to call it off, because you have to mow the yard today. Man, it's so hot outside. Need a few minutes to cool off. You clean up and begin to plan what to do with your free time. The wife hands you the infant as she runs out the door to meet her best friend, waiting in the car outside. She mumbles something about finally having some time to get out of the house, and that she told you over a week ago. Women are so hard to understand. She complains that you are not romantic, but she always seems to have other plans, just when you get some free time. Seems like she is gone forever, but she gets home in time to warm up leftovers for the family. The kids seem pretty eager to go to bed after playing outside with their friends all day. They come home with the strangest things, after riding their bikes throughout the neighborhood and who knows where else. Of course, eating late helps them calm down for bed. Your wife asks if you are coming to bed, but you really need to finish watching those movies, because they are due back tomorrow.
Is it Sunday already? Where did the week go? Where did the weekend go? Everybody in the family seems so sluggish getting ready for church on Sunday morning. On the way to church, you check to see if everybody did their lesson and got their verses memorized. They won't have time to get the memory verse down exactly, but they can cram enough to wing it. You help them answer their questions real quick. It would look bad if your kids came to church with blank Bible lessons. As you sit through another sermon, you begin to feel sleepy. Seems like you haven't sat down for that long, in one place, for all week. The preacher is kind of jumping around, and it's hard to keep up with his thoughts. You fight sleepiness and after a few nods, you manage to listen for the last few minutes. As he is making his closing applications, you realize that you have not been the spiritual leader that your family needs. You decide to do better, but then you realize that you have been here before. Just last week, you made this exact same promise to yourself. How did you let yourself repeat the exact same mistakes that you made last week? This time will be different. You make a silent prayer, asking for forgiveness and strength to do better. You listen intently to the last few minutes of the lesson. You shake the preacher's hand on the way out, telling him that he did a fine job. After taking the family out to dinner, to give Mom a break, the kids play for a while and you nestle down for a quick, but necessary Sunday afternoon nap. Sunday evening service goes well. It again reminds you of your need to take initiative in your life, making it more spiritually focused. You reaffirm your commitment, renewed just this morning. After evening services, some friends invite you to come eat dinner with them and play some dominoes. After 3 marathon sessions of 42, you and your wife finally decide to scoop your sleeping children off the couch and head home. After putting the kids to bed, you think about your commitment to be a better spiritual leader. You think about studying the Bible with your wife before you go to bed, but then again, you have been studying the Bible all day. You revise your daily-Bible-study commitment to not include Sunday and Wednesday, since they are church days anyway. Well you head to bed, promising yourself that you will arrange a Bible study for the family every night, starting tomorrow night. Right before you fall asleep, you promise additionally to begin every day with prayer. Somewhere in the middle of "Our Father in heaven," you doze off …
Ahh! Again! You're late again. Some distant mental note makes you feel as if today was going to be a big day for some reason. You were going to do something different today. No time to worry about it now. You're an hour late again, and you're falling behind. What a way to start the week! You only meant to sleep for 5 for more minutes, and now you are running an hour behind. Ok, time to take a quick shower, and eat breakfast on the way. You'll just have to push it on Parmer Lane and make up for lost time. …
"Therefore He says: 'Awake, you who sleep, Arise from the dead, And Christ will give you light.' See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit." (Ephesians 5:14-18)
There is no reason for the hunter to entrap an animal and wrestle with it, when he can just lull it to sleep instead (I Peter 5:8-9). A life is made by adding up many days. Unto what kind of life are your days adding? Are you asleep at the wheel?
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