The Parable of the Snooze Button...

There was a man who had trouble waking up in the morning. He decided that he needed something to wake him up, otherwise he would keep oversleeping. The man decided the best course of action would be to buy an alarm clock. The alarm clock worked very well for a while. When the alarm would go off in the morning, the man would rise, turn off the waking sound and begin to get ready for the day. For quite some time, the man was not late and had plenty of time to get ready in the mornings.

Now, it came to pass that one day the man discovered a feature on the alarm clock he had not seen before. The largest button on the clock labeled "snooze." The man pressed it, but nothing happened. The next morning as the clock was ringing its tone to wake him, the man hit the "snooze" button on accident. The alarm stopped but only for nine minutes. The alarm then began to buzz. The man realized what this button was and decided to take full advantage of such a wonderful innovation. He began using the "snooze" button each morning to catch just a few more minutes of sleep. He even discovered the "snooze" button could be used more than once. If he felt he needed it, he could press the "snooze" button multiple times to get more sleep. The man's son saw him using the "snooze" button and soon learned to use it as well, even as young as four years old.

As time progressed, the man began to realize that he was beginning to be late again. Late to work, late to rise on weekends, and late to other morning events. Some mornings, its seemed as if the alarm didn't even buzz to wake him. On one morning, the man woke with his son asleep next to him in bed, when he looked at the time, he realized that he had overslept and was now late by 3 hours! Frustrated he checked the alarm clock to realize that it was in fact on and working. His son awoke and noticed the man looking at the clock. "I hit the "snooze" button for you, daddy" the man's son replied. The man knew then, if he were to not be late, he must stop using the "snooze" button.


What are you hitting the "snooze" button on? We do it all the time. "Not now God, I need to finish this first." "Not yet God, I don't think I am ready." "Maybe in a few years God, but I have too much going on right now." We even teach people to do it for us. "I think you should wait, I mean did God really say now?"

Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will travel to such and such a city and spend a year there and do business and make a profit." You don't even know what tomorrow will bring—what your life will be! For you are a bit of smoke that appears for a little while, then vanishes.

-James 4:13-14

Stop hitting the "snooze" button...

In Christ,
jon walton