snooze button

The snooze button is 70 years old.  It was developed for post-war generations seeking a more leisurely reveille. The snooze is 9 minutes since early clock gears couldn't mesh for 10.  This button became a staple device 20 years later, when I was in my twenties.

So when a Christian speaker at that time spoke of obedience, saying, "obedience means when the alarm goes off, your feet hit the floor," we were stunned and thought of the older speaker as hopelessly out of touch with her audience.  We were accustomed to allowing ourselves a little leeway to snooze in the morning and to stall in the obeying.  And so my practice of obeying God's call and command continued in that vein.  I obeyed, but not in that regimented, snap-to manner.  Instead, I tended to respond to God within a reasonable amount of time.

But the other day, as my alarm went off at 2:50 AM, my feet hit the floor—no snooze button.  Since God has invited me to pray the canonical hours on weekdays, including 3 AM, and since I invite others to join me on Zoom at www.tinyurl.com/zoomtheabbey, when God calls with that alarm, I respond immediately.  

As I reflect on other invitations, calls, and commands of God, I realize that I'm no longer that sleepy follower, slow to respond.  I'm not like the person in Proverbs who says, A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest (Proverbs 6:10).  I'm more often the eager disciple, ready to do whatever The Master requires of me and, like Peter, sometimes stumbling in the responding.  Or I'm like the servant whom Jesus spoke of who immediately said "yes" to his master but sometimes fails to follow through (Matthew 21:28-29). 

On the whole, however, over intervening decades, I have joyfully proved the truth of Isaiah 1:19: If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land.  And today I give a hearty thumbs up to my elder sister, who, 50 years ago, spoke of my wayward feet eventually hitting the cold floor of obedience.