Don't sleep like the foolish virgins
"At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 2 Five of them were foolish and five were wise. 3 The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. 4 The wise ones, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. 5 The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.
6 “At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’
7 “Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. 8 The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’
9 “‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’
10 “But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.
11 “Later the others also came. ‘Lord, Lord,’ they said, ‘open the door for us!’
12 “But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.’
13 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.
(Matthew 25:1-13)
The parable of the ten virgins contains several life lessons, especially lessons that are linked to the end times.
Though most good preachers use the parable of the virgins to discuss the end times, I will discuss a section on the parable to stir a conversation around laziness and sense of responsibility.
In the above parable, five virgins were wise and carried oil for their lamps while the five others were foolish and did not carry oil for their lamps.
Notice that at a certain point during the night, all the virgins fell asleep.
Allow me to say this about sleeping: ‘Sleeping is a good thing. Sleeping allows for our bodies to be recharged in many ways.’
However, I have a question for everyone: ‘do you think that the foolish virgins should have felt asleep?’
I don’t think so. I think that the foolish virgins should have their sleep time to seek oil for themselves and return to the wedding location before the arrival of the groom.
And this is important for all of us regarding sleep and ‘chilling behavior’.
Sleep is a good and necessary thing to practice. However, there will be moments in life where it will be required that we shorten or delay our ‘sleeping moments’ to address important, burning and unresolved issues that could affect us negatively.
This is not a message to say that we should not sleep. I believe that sleep and physical rest have an important place in our lives. But in some moments of life, we will not be able to fully address unresolved and important life issues if those same issues are placed way below sleep and vain amusement in our list of priorities.
The foolish virgins should have addressed their challenges first and sleep later. They could have avoided being excluded from the wedding banquet.