Jeremy L. Berg

One of the strangest memories I have from my summers at church camp as a kid involves a certain sleepwalker.  At an early age Kristin had fallen in love with the television series The Little House on the Prairie.  She owned the entire collection and had watched them probably two dozen times each.  She knew every episode by heart and could answer any trivia question related to the show and its actors.  Kristin’s mind was so saturated with Little House that she would relive actual episodes in her dreams, with herself assuming a particular character—usually the eldest sister Carrie.  Even more fascinating was how she would narrate what was happening out loud, so anyone near her could listen in on her dream.  

Now, as junior high campers sleeping in a communal bunkhouse, this was prime entertainment!  One night, we all waited quietly for Kristin to fall asleep and begin her usual antics.  Then we quietly surrounded her and listened in on the action.  She began to talk about a fire in the barn, about the animals in danger, about Pa and his efforts to quench the flames and so on.  We were even able to talk to Kristin without waking her—so long as we played a role in the plot! (If we changed the subject, or asked her something unrelated to the dream, she would awake.)   When the fire grew close to the house in her dream, Kristin rose up from her bed and ran out of the bunkhouse to flee the fire.  Ruthless adolescents that we were, we just watched her wander outside in the dark for a while before she finally awoke and went sheepishly back to bed.

This story vividly illustrates how a person can speak, act and function as if alive and awake to the world; but all the while they are still very much asleep, inhabiting an entirely different plane of consciousness.  The church is filled with its own kind of sleepwalker. You cannot always tell them apart from the wakeful just by looking at them.  They may attend church weekly, tithe faithfully, and volunteer regularly.  They are involved in all the ‘right’ activities, going through all the religious motions, and talking the Christian talk.  All the while their spirit slumbers on.  

Reflection Questions:

1. Have you ever known a sleepwalker?  Isn’t it strange how awake they can appear?  

2. Do you agree that many Christians are spiritual sleepwalkers?  They act like Christians, speak like Christians but their Spirit is still asleep.  

3. How can we make sure we aren’t spiritually sleepwalking through life?