Now all wept and mourned for her; but He said, “Do not weep; she is not dead, but sleeping.” And they ridiculed Him, knowing that she was dead.
Luke 8:52-53
I love napping on my couch. It is so comfortable! But my children think it’s funny to take pictures of me asleep there. I could share such pictures, but they call it my “death sleep,” so you can imagine how unflattering they are.
My children exaggerate. Trust me. For the most part, it’s pretty easy to tell if someone is dead or alive.
Remember that time when Jesus arrived at Jairus’s house after his little girl had already died? Jesus said to the mourners, “The child is not dead, but sleeping,” (Mark 5:39). The people laughed him to scorn. It was obvious she was dead. And she was. But Jesus raised her from the dead. As far as his ability to heal her, it didn’t really matter whether it was the sleep of rest or the sleep of death.
What about with our spiritual lives? Spiritual life can be a little harder to verify. James says that faith can be dead (2:17,20,26).
So what does living, breathing Christianity look like?
Going to church? Good
Praying and reading the Bible at home? Also good.
How about serving others in some way? That too.
Loving others, even our enemies? That’s what Jesus said it would look like.
C.S. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity, “…daily prayers and religious reading and churchgoing are necessary parts of the Christian life. We have to be continually reminded of what we believe. Neither this belief nor any other will automatically remain alive in the mind.”
For those who may just be coming to church, and that only occasionally; for those who may only be praying once in a while; for those who are struggling with doubts about their Christian faith: people may have a hard time telling whether you are spiritually alive or dead. More importantly, you may not be sure yourself.
I would like to encourage you with a reminder that if you’ve been baptized into Christ, you are not dead. Read Romans chapter six.
Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. v. 4
Reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. v. 11
If your Christianity doesn’t look very alive, perhaps you are only sleeping.
“And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.” Romans 13:11
“Awake to righteousness, and do not sin; for some do not have the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame.” 1 Corinthians 15:34
What did Jesus command after raising the little girl from the dead? Give her something to eat.
Hebrews 5:12-14 talks about the word of God as our spiritual food. New Christians need “the milk of the word” (I Peter 2:2), but should eventually mature to the point of “solid food.” Continuing with the quote from C.S. Lewis: “[Our belief] must be fed. And as a matter of fact, if you examined a hundred people who had lost their faith in Christianity, I wonder how many of them would turn out to have been reasoned out of it by honest argument? Do not most people simply drift away?”
Our faith must be fed or it will die and we may simply drift away into a spiritual slumber that is unproductive and may even look like spiritual death.
I think the most peaceful way to die would be to “simply drift away” during a nap on my couch. But God forbid that any of His children should drift away from Him. Whether in life or in death, we need to be near the Lord, not spiritually dead, or sleeping, but wide awake!
Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away. Hebrews 2:1
Dear Heavenly Father, wherever I have become complacent, jaded, lazy, or self-satisfied, please wake me up with the truth of Your word and the power of Your Holy Spirit. I thank you for the spiritual life You’ve given me through Jesus Christ. Help me live it out intentionally, awake to all the blessings You have in store for Your children. In Jesus name, Amen.
by Christie Cole Atkins
Walk Worthy 
One response to “Not Dead, But Sleeping”
[…] I suppose it was the TV comedy “The Big Bang Theory” that popularized the concept of “Shrödinger’s cat,” a thought experiment that suggests that if you put a cat in a box with a lethal substance, until you open the box, the cat could be thought of as both dead and alive at the same time. Though it’s just a thought experiment, as a cat lover I can’t help but wonder why he chose a cat instead of a rat or a snake for this imaginary scenario. But I must admit I’ve known plenty of cats who were so asleep I wondered if they were dead. And sometimes faith can be like that, but I’ve already covered that topic here. […]
LikeLike