Don’t Snooze

Yesterday I woke up at 7:00AM. 

I also woke up at 7:10, 7:20, and 7:30. 

After looking at my phone and doing two productive things for 5 minutes, I got up at 8. 

Where did the time go? 

Well, half of it went into the black hole called the “snooze” button. 

I know that science says pressing that snooze button is problematic, but there are a few things that keep me pounding that alarm clock. 

1. I press it because I have poor control of my will in the morning.
2. I press it because of the few times I turned it off and missed my 1st meeting.
3. I press it because it feels so nice to do so. 

On the other hand, it takes very little reading to realize the snooze button ultimately provides you what you want, NOT what you need. 

1. Pressing the snooze button throws off your sleep cycle.
2. Pressing the snooze button does not provide restorative sleep.
3. Pressing the snooze button makes you more drowsy than before.

The facts are clear and stand in stark contrast to my poor will control, fear of mistakes, and desire for “rest.” Whoever created the snooze button understood human wants but not their needs. Snoozing keeps you from getting better rest, provides no benefits of rest, and could ultimately hamper your awareness the entire day. 

Ultimately, though, I know you all either are stuck in the bad cycle with me or wisely pulled out of it. There’s no real argument here—just people making life worse for themselves by pursuing short-term satisfaction over all else.

However, I don’t think it stops with sleep. I have a hundred different snooze buttons in my life–Social media, sports news, video games, shopping, movies, and television. It feels so nice to press those buttons, to pause time for another 10 minutes, 2 hours, a full day. 

This problem made me think Paul knew what he was talking about Ephesians 5:14-16:

“For everything made evident is light, and for this reason it says: 

    “Awake, O sleeper! 

    Rise from the dead, 

    and Christ will shine on you!” 

 Therefore be very careful how you live—not as unwise but as wise, taking advantage of every opportunity, because the days are evil” (NET). 

In short, wake up! Pay attention! Live intentionally!

Don’t snooze!

The context describes the “unfruitful deeds of the darkness” (v. 12). There are so many pointless, sometimes shameful things we do every day. Snooze buttons designed to give us what we want rather than what we need. The answer proves much more simple than it feels like it should be.

Don’t snooze! Wake up!

Well, maybe after another 10 minutes.

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Consistently Inconsistent

I thought I lived pretty consistently until I got married. 

One fine day in June I welcomed another human into my life based on key principles that created a beautiful structure to build a home around. 

While I can’t say with certainty I was wrong (I still hold and teach some of those principles), I can certainly say I wasn’t right. 

As Adrienne and I have considered some of the arguments of our early years, I think we both agree that my principles, while flawed themselves, mostly failed due to my false assumption that I consistently followed what I thought and taught. 

I consistently proved inconsistent. 

As I think through the cycles of arguments I’ve witnessed on facebook the past several years, I think we’ve established the same pattern: people prove themselves again and again consistently inconsistent. 

In my marriage, I had to learn to first list my own personal inconsistencies before ever broaching how I felt about hers. Scratch that. We only really got somewhere when I focused exclusively on my own inconsistencies. Then, without fail, she would mention a couple of her own inconsistencies and we could move forward. This allowed us to basically argue for the other person, our marriage, and truth, and not pridefully for ourselves.

I wonder if it’s okay to be inconsistent. I think most philosophies and approaches to life would destroy the individual and his or her loved ones if followed exclusively. Just take a quick look at some of the classics. A true-blue hedonist would fail as even self-controlled attempts at personal happiness tend to result in  misery. A Stoic might get along pretty well, but most people run into something that they can’t endure through commitment to virtue.  

Ultimately, I think the only way forward for our nation is to take a good hard look at our own hearts and describe our inconsistencies first; most of us might need to stop there. I don’t think we get anywhere telling people what anyone with a pinch of self-honesty could tell you: 

you’re inconsistent. 

Newsflash: we all are.

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