Drop Dead Tired

Are you like me, nodding off while watching TV or worse, while listening to someone give a sermon or speech?  Well, if so, this story is for you.

A young man named Eutychus, who was sitting in the window, began to sink off into a deep sleep while Paul talked still longer. Overcome by sleep, he fell to the ground three floors below and was picked up dead. But Paul went down, and bending over him took him in his arms, and said, "Do not be alarmed, for his life is in him." - Acts 20:9-10

In today's reading, a person thought to be dead was found to still have life in him.

In a recent episode of Chicago Med, a father suffers cardiac arrest just as his daughter is giving birth to her first child.  As the daughter is being wheeled to his bedside, the father dies and despite several attempts to revive him, he is pronounced dead.

But as the daughter's hospital bed comes toward the room, he revives and gets to see his grandchild.  He still had life in him.

Paul's long boring talk that leads to the near death experience of Eutychus always brings a chuckle when I hear it.  But as a metaphor, the slip into boredom and sleep that leads to lifeless existence is worth taking a few minutes to reflect upon.

Eutychus is a young man, so we may not think of him as being of the age when he would grow tired and bored with his life.  We see the young as having a long life ahead of them and we mourn their passing with great sadness.

But we can grow tired at any age.  One doesn't have to be old to feel there is no life left in him or her.

I like to think of Paul's message as one of hope.  No matter our age or circumstances, no matter what has happened that makes us feel we are dead, we can still find some life left in us, and we can come back.

It is the message of the Gospel played out in a simple, somewhat humorous story of a young man, bored with his existence,  who drops off and then comes back to life.

It could be any of us at any time in our lives, feeling there is nothing left to live for, only to be awakened and returned, shown there is still some life left in us, life worth living.

Perhaps we can share that story with people we meet, giving them a laugh, and then leaving them knowing they are saved from a dull and boring, lifeless existence.

At least they will have a chuckle.

More to come...