Are you a spiritual somnambulist? When I was a boy, I would sometimes wake up in a different place than where I fell asleep. I usually ended up on a couch in the basement. My parents were still awake one night when I began to sleepwalk, so they decided not to wake me, but see what I would do. I walked right out the front door, climbed into the back seat of the car, locked all the doors (as was my habit before there were automatic locks) and rode to whatever dream destination I was going to. After a few minutes I unlocked my door, walked back into the house and went back to bed. My parents said I would often come ask them for a drink of water, while walking back and forth at the foot of their bed. I would not hold the glass, but would apparently drink it if they held it for me. I never recall waking up while sleepwalking, but often wondered how I woke up on the couch after being “tucked in” my own bed. Thank goodness I outgrew my somnambulism by high school. One lady from Massachusetts told Reader’s Digest she’s had many sleepwalking incidents as an adult. Apparently “she’s left the house and visited neighbors, kicked holes through doors, punched out windows, initiated arguments with her husband, and reported fictitious emergencies to the police—all while having utterly no idea of what she was doing or why, and no recollection upon waking.”
Apparently, the church at Ephesus had somehow become like somniloquists. They were walking around acting as if they were asleep with no recollection they had connected their lives with Christ. They were living like they were not His people. Paul reminds them, “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said: ‘Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.’ Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.” (Ephesians 5:8–17 NIV) Those in the early church in Ephesus, like us, used to belong to the world and the evil one, we were “darkness,” but now we belong to Jesus, we are “children of the light.” When Paul wrote this letter to the early church he knew that we would sometimes need to be reminded of how to act like our Jesus’ selves, living good, right, and truthful, God honoring lives… loving God and others well.
Hang in there people. God is glad to be with us. I’m praying for us all.
