“Tis the voice of the sluggard; I heard him complain, you have waked me too soon; I must slumber again.”¹ – Isaac Watts. I watched a soccer team that fielded star players but still loses games against teams with relatively little obvious talent. The poor achievements despite sound talented players may be as a result of what their coach attributed to poor coordination, unharmonized skill and egocentric. But I see them as losing focus on the higher prize before them. Their ultimate concern should have been winning the tournament, however, they got distracted and became underachievers. When we lose consciousness of our worth, we develop a confused and diverged notions about life.

It is possible to be overly concerned about our problems to the point of ignoring some of our harmful traits and practices. How easy it is for good things to slip away from us through ignorance and slumber. When you fail to acknowledge or put to use the good things about you, it may cause you to languish in need. I recall the right sense of judgment that brought the ancient King of Israel to fame.

“Now two women who were harlots came to the king, and stood before him. And one woman said, “O my lord, this woman and I dwell in the same house; and I gave birth while she was in the house. Then it happened, the third day after I had given birth, that this woman also gave birth. And we were together; no one was with us in the house, except the two of us in the house. And this woman’s son died in the night, because she lay on him. So she arose in the middle of the night and took my son from my side, while your maidservant slept, and laid him in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom. And when I rose in the morning to nurse my son, there he was, dead. But when I had examined him in the morning, indeed, he was not my son whom I had borne.”

Then the other woman said, “No! But the living one is my son, and the dead one is your son.”

And the first woman said, “No! But the dead one is your son, and the living one is my son.”

Thus they spoke before the king.

And the king said, “The one says, ‘This is my son, who lives, and your son is the dead one’; and the other says, ‘No! But your son is the dead one, and my son is the living one.’” Then the king said, “Bring me a sword.” So they brought a sword before the king. And the king said, “Divide the living child in two, and give half to one, and half to the other.”

Then the woman whose son was living spoke to the king, for she yearned with compassion for her son; and she said, “O my lord, give her the living child, and by no means kill him!”

But the other said, “Let him be neither mine nor yours, but divide him.”

So the king answered and said, “Give the first woman the living child, and by no means kill him; she is his mother.”

And all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had rendered; and they feared the king, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to administer justice.” (1 Kg. 3:16-28)

These two women lived in the same house, both had their babies three days apart. One of the ladies rolled over her child and suffocated the child to death. This baby was a precious gift but suppressed to death. This may apply to many people who slumber to quash their gifts and envy those who put theirs to use. “She rose at midnight”. Midnight hour is always a dark and lonely period of life. She got out of her sleep to see she has killed her own baby. She exchanged her dead baby with the living baby also at midnight, while the other lady slept. During this interchange, she slept off until daylight. She slumbered so deep that she could not sense the dead baby.

When we are not cognizant of how exemplary and meritorious we are, we act unworthy and become contemptible. The nobility in you is desirous of a much fruitful life, treat it venerably lest you’ll be remodeled as vile in your approach to life.

Don’t become so stereotyped that you see yourself common and become irrelevant.

Hold dearly to what you have that makes people see light out of darkness. I counsel you to awake and be not wasted by slumber.
DECLARATION: “‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “On the day that I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will also enable you to dwell in the cities, and the ruins shall be rebuilt. The desolate land shall be tilled instead of lying desolate in the sight of all who pass by. So they will say, ‘This land that was desolate has become like the garden of Eden; and the wasted, desolate, and ruined cities are now fortified and inhabited.’” (Eze. 36:33-35)

¹http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/i/isaac_watts.html.