Thursday: Retreating into Unconsciousness
WEEK 4
THURSDAY
RETREATING INTO UNCONSCIOUSNESS
Jonah 1:4-5
Let us pause to apply this principle of facing our most difficult problem and mastering it straight off, if we are going to know mastery. Don’t deal with the problem of mastering marginal problems and leaving the central problem untouched. For that central, untouched problem will haunt the so-called solution of the lesser problems and taint them with the consciousness of the untouched central.
Many try to skirt the central problem by various methods. One is to retreat into sleep. It provides an escape; a temporary one, of course, but for the time being the problem is put off by oblivion. A very brilliant girl in Ceylon failed in her B.A. examination. It was a great blow to her pride. She began to develop various ailments. Above all she became drowsy, even falling asleep while teaching her classes. She would go to sleep on the slightest provocation. When the connection between her wounded pride and the sleep as a way out of the necessity of facing an unpleasant situation was pointed out, she surrendered herself and her wounded pride to God. The next day her face had changed, and the first thing she said was, “Don’t you think I could take that examination over again and pass?” She had been insisting that her mind was so upset that she couldn’t study. But now she was ready to face her central problem—the shame of having failed in an examination. She ceased her attempt at running away into insensibility through sleep. Life was tipped forward, not backward.
A colleague who didn’t like to travel on planes, saying that he had a responsibility to his family and shouldn’t risk things this way, was on a plane with me when we passed over the Sierras and dived into a dense fog bank on our way to Seattle. We had to go completely blind. I looked over at my friend; he was fast asleep, his chin on his chest. He was frightened and retreated into sleep when the going got tough. That is what Jonah did when his ship ran into a fierce storm, a storm that he knew his own running away from God had caused. He went below and fell fast asleep, retreated into unconsciousness out of his trouble.
To try to get away from our problem is self-defeating, for the running away puts the problem inside us; we become the problem.
O Lord, help me to run away to nothing except your arms. Help me to face all with your grace and strength. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: No checking out of responsibility, no excuses, no evasions, everything met unafraid.