Sleeping With One Eye Open
Did you know that dolphins sleep with one eye open? It’s true.
They do so because they can only ever let one side of their brain sleep at a time. When the left side of the brain sleeps, the right eye will close, and vice versa. This isn’t some weird, ambidextrous stunt they’re pulling. Rather, it’s because they must always remain partially conscious to remind themselves to breathe.
You see, dolphins, unlike most sea creatures, are not fish. They are mammals. As such, they need to surface regularly to take in air. And for dolphins, breathing is not automatic or reflexive the way it is for humans. “In other words,” say the experts at us.whales.org, “dolphins have to actively decide when to breathe, … [They] alternate which half of the brain is sleeping periodically so that they can get the rest they need without ever losing consciousness.”
If a dolphin were ever to go into deep, full-brain, total unconscious sleep, they would simply suffocate or drown.
Likewise, believers can't afford to be lulled to sleep by the world but must remain alert, always ready for the Lord's return.
"But you aren’t in the dark about these things, dear brothers and sisters, and you won’t be surprised when the day of the Lord comes like a thief. For you are all children of the light and of the day; we don’t belong to darkness and night. So be on your guard, not asleep like the others. Stay alert and be clearheaded. Night is the time when people sleep and drinkers get drunk. But let us who live in the light be clearheaded, protected by the armor of faith and love, and wearing as our helmet the confidence of our salvation" (1Thessalonians 5:4-8, NLT).
Restoring the Church of God
On April 15, 2019, thousands of horrified Parsians and tourists looked on, many with tears in their eyes as Notre Dame was on fire. Many of us remember watching the fire as well, seeing flames shoot into the air and rapidly spread over the Gothic building’s roof, known as “The Forest” because of its long planks of 800-year-old wood.
The next day, the French President vowed to rebuild the edifice within five years. While many thought a complete restoration would take decades, five years later, the historic renovation is nearly 90% complete. 2,000 oak trees were sourced from forests around Europe for the rebuild. Some of them are up to 400 years old. They were left to dry for 12 to 19 months before the carpenters used them. The estimated cost was $760 million. As of April 15, 2024, 340,000 donors from more than 150 countries have donated around $895 million.
Ahead of the 2024 Olympics in Paris, work by this team of carpenters, scaffolding experts, professional climbers, organ mechanics, and others continues at the cathedral. While most of the modern building methods are being employed, there are tools that were re-created on site to match those used a thousand years ago by the original builderss.
We live in perilous times, when even the very fabric of the church is being burned to the ground by divisiveness, wokeness, radicalism, religious persecution, and the like.
If we, as a people are so inspired by God to rebuild and invest in a physical church edifice, how much more should we be inspired to invest in rebuilding His true church, the Body of Christ.
Our foundation is immovable, for it is Christ Himself! (1 Corinthians 3:11). We, as believers, are the very composition of that great, spiritual structure: "From whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love" (Ephesians 4:16, ESV).
And let us look to Scripture to resurrect (pun intended) the very tools which were used from the beginning of the Church's construction, putting on love "which binds everything together in perfect harmony" (Colossians 3:14, ESV).
1 Corinthians 3:
9 For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building.
10 By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. 11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, 13 their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. 14 If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. 15 If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames.
16 Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.
Blind To The Raging Fires
The NY POST reports:
Diners at a French cafe could be seen casually enjoying a glass of wine next to a flaming pyre of garbage amid riots against President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform.
The viral video, posted on TikTok, shows the outdoor seating area at the Place de la Victoire, in Bordeaux, where rioters set fire to the roads on Thursday, the most violent day of the protests. … Throughout the video, the fire could be seen flaring up at times and sending embers flying up high, but the diners remained unfazed.
What a picture of our world today. Our culture and society are burning down around us in every corner of the globe. Political unrest. Cultural unrest. Religious unrest. Economic unrest. You name it.
Click here to watch the video.
With so much chaos raging, we run the very real risk of becoming desensitized to it -- desensitized to the needs and the questions and the concerns of those caught up in the rage. We can become so desensitized to it that we hardly respond to it anymore.
As the church, and as individual members of it, let us guard our hearts and ask the Lord to open our eyes and remove our blinders to the chaos raging all around us — the needs and the emptiness and turmoil raging all around us.
Times of great chaos can be times of great revival.
We are called to “understand the present time” knowing this, “The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed” (Romans 13:11, NIV).
Let’s not squander the richness of this moment.