It's Time for a Break

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s a child, I loved the story of the tortoise and the hare.  Every time that story was read or told, I imagined myself as one of the participants in that race.  Because I don’t like to lose and am somewhat competitive, I always imagined myself to be the tortoise, always winning the race.  When I grew up, however, it didn’t take me long to realize just how much like the hare I was.

As the story unfolds, you’ll remember that the hare dashed away from the starting line, leaving the tortoise there to meander his way toward the finish line at his own slow pace.  The hare was confident that he had the race won, and he reveled in his confidence.  Near the finish line, he took a break, stretched out, and went to sleep.  When he awoke, however, he found out that during his brief respite, the tortoise had passed him and crossed the finish line first.

This is true for most people, especially when it comes to their spiritual walk with God.  Like the hare, we place too much confidence in our own ability and do not rely on God to help us or to provide for us.  We begin the race full force, assured in the knowledge that, not only can we run life’s race, but we have already won it. 

That’s when it happens.  We decide to take a small break from our spiritual walk.  We let our guard down, we neglect our time with God, we get busy doing other things, and we focus, not on the race, but on everything else around us.  We decide to take a “little” nap.  This is always our undoing because during this brief rest period, we lose the race.  Sleep over takes us, not physical sleep, but sleep that causes separates us from God, that keeps us from having relationship with him.  When we come to our senses, we discover just how far short of the mark we are.

The book of Proverbs speaks very well to this point.  Proverbs 6:9-11 says, “How long will you lie there, you sluggard?  When will you get up from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to rest- and poverty will come on you like a bandit
and scarcity like an armed man.”

The spiritual application here is quite evident.  If falling to sleep and taking our ease leads to economic ruin where poverty overtakes us, how much more is this the case with our relationship with God.  When we fold our hands, not in prayer but in repose, when we sleep, not with our physical eyes but with our minds and hearts, then the enemy rushes in, overtakes us, and passes us by.  We are then left in his wake, trying to make up for lost time and lost territory, both of which are very difficult to recover.

No one would refuse to go to work on a daily basis. None of us goes to our place of employment, intent on spending the day napping.  Instead we arrive before opening time and stay well the office closes.  We do this, to get ahead, to win the race, to make sure we have done our best.  Isn’t it funny, though, that we don’t apply the same principle to our spiritual lives.  We are too much like the hare, over confident and proud.  But it was the tortoise who proved a great spiritual truth.  Slow and steady wins the race every time.  God would rather have us on a slow and steady pace with him than running at breakneck speed without him. 

So, as you run your race today, which of these two are you?  The tortoise or the hare?  How long have you been on break?  Don’t you think it’s time you got up and rejoined the race?