“When he returned to them again, he found them sleeping, for they couldn’t keep their eyes open.”

Imagine walking over to your co-worker’s cubicle and there he is stretched out on the floor, not passed out, but instead with his head on a pillow and gently snoring?  Our first reaction?  After our astonishment and a photo taken, we would likely begin thinking about how he never lives this moment down.  That would be the way it would go in most of our offices, but not in Japan.  In Japan, there is a term for sleeping on the job.  It is called, Inemuri, and there it is a bit of a badge to be earned.  You see, if you are practicing Inemuri it means that you have worked so hard and so presumably long, that you worked yourself beyond fatigue and all the way to exhaustion, ultimately to sleep. Is this something to be proud?  I don’t think so if we consider the lack of productivity (not to mention lack of safety) that comes from this level of weariness.  But, if we asked and monitored the alertness of our employees we might find that more than we desire are not that far away from being in the state of Inemuri.

Jesus just needed His Disciples to stay awake a few hours.  But, they couldn’t and Jesus certainly didn’t commend them for working themselves to their own level of exhaustion. He asked them, just as He asks us to stay alert on His behalf.  I read His Word this way – our lives are short here on earth and each and every day He places us within experiences by which if we are awake and alert, we will see that what we can have a positive impact on others, leaving us with a door to open in their lives to the impact of God.  So, if we are to sleep while we are present, we are to miss out on all that He has for us, which means today is a great day to ask Him to wake us up!

Reference: Matthew 26:43 (New Living Translation)