Let’s do what it takes

Imagine this: As the visiting preacher droned on and on, Eutychus sat still on the window ledge. The large room was stuffy and hazy from the smoke of many lamps. The boy could feel himself getting drowsy. He could have shifted his position a little, but he didn’t. The people around the visiting preacher were eagerly leaning forward to catch every word. Eutychus was leaning back, his eyes half-closed, or more than half.

The sermon really was interesting. It was about travels to foreign lands, brushes with death, and how the amazing power of the gospel can transform one broken life after another. But Eutychus tuned it out, becoming lost in his own reverie. This lesson could have been the best experience he’d had in months, but it wasn ’t. He was missing it.

A man next to him was holding a scroll. Eutychus could have followed along as the preacher explained how one messianic prophecy after another painted a portrait of Jesus hundreds of years before His birth. The wonder of how this had happened should have peaked his interest and kept Eutychus alert, but he didn’t even glance at the man’s scroll.

His head started bobbing. The boy could have fixed his eyes on the preacher, watching how his facial expressions added important nuances to the bare words. The speaker’s gestures were animated, keeping the whole audience spell-bound. Everyone except Eutychus, who didn’t see them.

Suddenly he slid sideways, and the movement jerked him awake. He threw his weight the opposite direction, lost his balance, and with a scream fell out the window—a third-story window.

Fortunately for Eutychus, the visiting preacher was the apostle Paul, who immediately raised the boy from the dead. Eutychus learned to do what it takes to stay awake during a sermon. Have you?