Flying and waiting in airports for thirty hours provides too many reasons for sleeping in. The stress, wear and tear, lack of good food, poor conditions for sleeping, and extremely dry air are just the beginning! One could easily add cranky passengers, screaming kids, poor service, and rude ground personnel to the list as justification for just about any action. When you arrive and your luggage is missing or damaged, everything tends to look just a little crazy.
The list is not unique. Almost every traveler at one time or another experiences the joys and challenges of long distance traveling. It is almost too easy to rationalize and justify one’s actions due to another. If you do not act then the next solution is to get mildly depressed and go to bed – for a long, long time.
There are too many opportunities to let the situations around us control our response. It is almost natural to either fight or step out of the situation and just take a nap. Personally, I prefer the latter. Taking a break often allows me to see the situation for what is really is and then do something positive about it. The question always is, “how long before you get out of bed?” (Proverbs 6.9)
There are opportunities to make a difference all around us. People are struggling to deal with the challenges of the moment. Friends are finding it difficult to carry on with hope. Families face the confrontation of pain, illness, and age. These situations occur in our lives every day. How long are we going to metaphorically, or physically, stay in bed? How long before we respond and do something?
Life is big and often overwhelming. Talking about hunger and pain often provides the excuse that the problems are so big that there is little if anything one can do about them. I do not believe we should worry about the global picture unless we feel exceptionally called to do something about it. Even then, the question is what we are going to do in the present.
