Young Man Who Fell Asleep

     I had totally forgotten reading about the young man who fell asleep and fell out of the window until Acts 20:9-10 reminded me of the event.  "And there sat in a window a certain young man named Eutychus, being fallen into a deep sleep: and as Paul was long preaching, he sunk down with sleep, and fell down from the third loft, and was taken up dead.  And Paul went down, and fell on him, and embracing him said, Trouble not yourselves; for his life is in him. "  
     It never amazes me over how often I can read scripture and pick up on an event that has long been forgotten and even come away with a completely different scriptural interpretation.
     As I pondered this particular scripture, I wondered just what was the point, because nothing else is mentioned about this young man or the event itself.  I read several commentaries and two of them I could relate to myself.
     I remember, as a young girl in church being bored and nodding off, embarrassingly, to sleep.  This story really could be comical from a human perspective for most people do laugh when they catch someone asleep in church.  One commentator put it this way-  (in my condensed version): 
   "This is the first recorded incident in the history of the Christian Church in which a young person was literally bored to death by preaching...It scarcely elicits more than a shared chuckle among  long-winded preachers...Yet instead of a comedy, it becomes a tragedy...How many have allowed themselves to sleep under sermons and have perished forever,,,have slept the sleep of eternal death and are fallen to rise no more?"
     One other commentator said it wakes us up to the fact that pastors are constantly having to come up with new ideas in their preaching methods in order to entertain and prevent "boring the congregation to death." 
     To be honest, I am sure pastors see the yawns (lack of oxygen) and sleepy eyelids of many.  With that in mind, we need to constantly be in prayer for our pastors and leaders.  They have a tremendous job to do in order to lead people to Christ.