It’s time for a five-year checkup. I can report there has not been much change in my patterns, but I seem to have survived. For my benefit and hopefully for yours, I thought a return to a previous prescription might prove helpful. This Musing first appeared April 30, 2019.
For the most part I really enjoyed my teen years. I had good friends, went to a good school, enjoyed good health, hung out with a cutie girlfriend, and had good hair. There is one thing I miss from those years, sleep. I could fall asleep late at night and dream deeply until late morning. Those days are long gone. Nowadays, I’d love to sleep uninterrupted for more than three hours. Maybe you would too.
I don’t have any medical advice to offer, but I can direct you to God’s Word.
I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the Lord sustains me. Psalm 3:5
David pens his assertion between cries to God for help. Apparently, life isn’t going so well for the king. In the remainder of the psalm, he writes about his fear, his conflicts in relationships, the bullying he's received, and the overwhelming odds stacked against him.
Sleep? Ain’t nobody got time for that.
Maybe you know the feeling. You’d love a good night’s sleep, but the realities of life simply get in the way.
Fear of tomorrow’s exams or work assignments or medical appointments keeps you awake.
Fear for your children’s safety while driving through the night back from college, away from your house for the evening, or when they’ve threatened to do something harmful brings you back to consciousness in the middle of the night.
The to-do list was supposed to get shorter today, but now it’s midnight, and the list is longer, and you’re so tired.
You’ve been in the hospital caring for mom or dad, daughter or son, sister or brother, and you’d love to sleep like a baby, but you can’t. What if something happens to them while you’re sleeping?
Did you notice where David’s lullaby appears in the psalm? It’s right in the middle of the problems. Somehow, some way, David can sleep when life is terrible. You can too.
For David, there is a restful reliance upon God that delivers to him good sleep, the kind that refreshes, strengthening God’s child for the inevitable battles of the coming day.
Maybe it’s this simple: O, Lord, when I was little, I used to pray, "Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep." My faith was childlike. You woke me every morning in those early years after a good night’s sleep. I was full of strength for the day. Now I’m older, and tomorrow’s realities are more daunting than when I was 6 or 16, but my confidence and my request remain the same. I rest in you to protect me and those whom I love while I sleep. Would you grant me the rest of mind and body to sustain me tomorrow as you did today?
There’s a beautiful phrase from my favorite hymn, Be Thou My Vision, “Thou my best thought by day or by night, waking or sleeping, thy presence my light.” So many thoughts enter my mind late at night and early in the morning. I’m better when those thoughts are carried along by the best thought, “The Lord sustains me.”
May God grant you the sweet sleep of those sustained by him.
As always, thanks for reading, and I welcome your feedback and any suggestions you might have for an upcoming Lunchtime Musing.