“Then the Lord called Samuel. Samuel answered, ‘Here I am.’”
— 1 Samuel 3:4
My 13-year-old has started setting Alexa alarms for himself. Every night, he tells Alexa what time to wake him up. And every morning, the alarm goes off and he does not move. He doesn’t get up. He doesn’t even stop the alarm. It just rings and rings and rings while he lies there like it is happening to someone else.
This morning, it went off for 30 minutes. 30 minutes of me in the next room waiting for him to do something about the alarm. Finally, I walked in and said, “An alarm is no good if you don’t listen to it. Now get up.” Then I looked at him and said, “And you just gave me my next sermon.”
Because how many of us are doing the exact same thing with God?
God has been setting alarms in our lives. Loud ones. Clear ones. Ones that ring and ring and ring. And we just lie there. We hear it. We know it is going off. But we roll over, pull up the covers, and hit snooze.
In 1 Samuel, God called Samuel three times. Three times. And Samuel didn’t recognize it. He kept running to Eli saying, “Here I am, you called me.” And Eli kept saying, “I didn’t call you. Go back to bed.” It took three alarms before someone helped Samuel realize it was God calling.
I wonder how many alarms God has set for us that we thought were something else. Or someone else. Or nothing at all.
I found BBQ sauce in my fridge last week. Three years expired. Three years. That sauce had been sitting there, taking up space, and every time I opened the fridge I saw it and thought, I need to use this. Every single time. For three years. That is 1,095 alarms I snoozed on. Over BBQ sauce.
Now, BBQ sauce isn’t going to change your life. But it made me think — what else am I snoozing on? What bigger things have I been looking at, knowing they need to go or knowing they need to change, and just closing the fridge door?
Sometimes the alarm is telling you to start something, like a new career. Sometimes the alarm is telling you to stop something, like a relationship. And sometimes, the hardest part is knowing the difference.
Sometimes you aren’t sure until you are. My friends Kevin and Stacy have an amazing garden. I mean beautiful. They grow everything. A few years ago, they planted spaghetti squash. They got so much of it they were sick of it by September. This year? They decided to try again. What happened? They realized that the spaghetti squash season is over for them. They weren’t sure, but now they are — squash is a no go for them. Next season, they can snooze on the squash.
But most of the time? Most of the time the alarm is a go and we know it. We just don’t want to get out of bed.
Preston — my same 13-year-old alarm ignorer — told me he wants to start biking to school. Great intention. He had the plan. He had the motivation. He even talked about what time he would need to leave. But when the alarm went off the next morning? Covers pulled up. Eyes closed. Bike in the garage.
He heard the alarm. He just didn’t want to listen to it. There is a difference between hearing and listening. Hearing is passive. Listening is action. Samuel heard God three times. But he didn’t listen until the fourth.
I think about all the alarms God has set in my life. Cancer was an alarm. A loud, screaming, fire-alarm-at-2-AM kind of alarm. I couldn’t snooze that one. It sat me straight up in bed. But there were quieter alarms before that. Ones I snoozed. Ones I ignored. Ones where I heard the ringing and thought, I will deal with that tomorrow.
This project — 10 Minute Sermons — was an alarm. It rang for a long time before I answered it. It still feels itchy and uncomfortable. I knew the alarm was going off. I kept pulling up the covers. What if no one reads it? What if I say the wrong thing? What if I am not qualified? Those are snooze buttons. Every single one.
The snooze button feels safe. It gives you ten more minutes of comfortable. But comfortable is not where God does His best work. He does His best work in the getting up. In the throwing your feet on the cold floor and saying, “Okay, I’m up.”
Samuel finally said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.” Not hearing. Listening. He stopped running to Eli. He stopped assuming it was someone else. He stopped hitting snooze. He sat there and said, I am ready to hear what you have to say, even if it is hard, even if it changes everything.
This is not the first time Samuel has come up. Long before I started 10 Minute Sermons, Kris put it on my heart to be like Samuel and not let my words fall to the ground. But first, Samuel had to listen. You have to listen and learn before you have words.
That is the prayer I want to pray. Not “God, set another alarm.” He has set plenty. But “God, help me stop hitting snooze.”
The alarm is working. It has always been working. The question is whether we are going to keep lying there or finally get up.
Something about writing it makes you live it.
My Prayer
God, I know You have been calling. I know the alarm has been going off. Forgive me for the snooze buttons — for the times I heard You and rolled over, for the times I knew what You were asking and pulled up the covers instead. Give me the courage of Samuel to finally say, “Speak, for your servant is listening.” Help me stop snoozing on the life You are calling me to live. In Jesus’ name, I pray.
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