I use a CPAP machine at night in order to sleep better. It shovels air down my throat so I don’t stop breathing. On a getaway to Amherstburg a few years ago, I forgot to take it along. Twice during our stay, I partially awoke unable to breathe. Typically, when that happened, the growing fear would eventually cause enough adrenaline to kick in, I would come fully awake and my respiratory system would continue as normal.
However, the strangest thing happened the second time this occurred in Amherstburg. Half awake, I shook Sue beside me to wake me fully. As soon as she awoke, I did too. I had been awake enough to physically shake her, but not enough to be able to breathe.
I would love to hear what a professional would say about that, but as I reflected on this bizarre situation, I saw a profound spiritual application–we need others to wake us up.
None of us is in sync with God continuously. One day we feel sure God is in charge and everything will work out, the next day we have a mood change and plunge into unbelief. In our own subjective world, we lose our way.
We need someone else to help us get our bearings again. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the great German theologian and pastor executed by Hitler, says we need others to speak God’s word to us. By that he doesn’t mean we need talking heads to quote bible verses at us. “When one person is struck by the Word,” Bonhoeffer says, “he speaks it to others.”
Note, the person speaking is “struck” by the word. They are engaged by something outside of themselves, something greater that “strikes” them. That something is the Spirit of God.
The words the Spirit speaks through us give life. They encourage, they build up, they comfort and teach. The Spirit’s nudge is often subtle. Sometimes we must just step out in faith and speak when we sense a kindly feeling prodding us towards someone. Sometimes God’s words correct or even rebuke. In such cases, we need a greater level of certainty and a relationship in which we have been given permission to do so.
When God’s Spirit touches us, we feel strong and in a position to help. However, we are not always strong. We in turn need others to speak God’s word to us. Bonhoeffer says of a Christian, “The Christ in his own heart is weaker than the Christ in the word of his brother; his own heart is uncertain, his brother’s is sure.” Put simply, we are dependent on one another.
Often, Christian fellowships have failed to foster any sense of that dependence. Having accepted Jesus, we’re now supposed to need nothing else. So we’re afraid to show any sign of weakness or vulnerability. We might be viewed as lacking faith.
Did God really design us to live in a protective cocoon isolated from those around us through fear?
I believe we desperately need others to affirm God’s word to us, first and foremost the word that says, “You are loved. You are accepted. You belong.” In love, the God who IS love created us. Now, in one way or another, we need to hear through others, “It is good that you exist!”
To sum up, two takeaways:
- Make it a goal to be more vulnerable and listen for God’s encouragement (and maybe correction) through others.
- When you have an inner urge to speak something that just might bring life to someone, do it!
Remember, at best we’re in a semi-conscious spiritual state. As I found out on a bed of an Amherstburg Airbnb, we need others to wake us up!
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