While You Weren't Sleeping

I tossed and turned and could not sleep.  I did not have peace about an ongoing situation.  And I realized God didn't want me to.  He wanted me to pray about it.  Not to sleep peacefully, but to pray in the night, to resist and rebel against the darkness.  Not to wake up and worry, but wake up and pray.

These interruptions in our sleep may be creating an opportunity to secure our undivided devotion to the Lord.  "I've been trying to get your attention," God may be whispering to us.

Throughout scripture and from the beginning of time, God has been waking up people in the middle of the night, not randomly but for His profound purposes.  On that night, the king could not sleep. Esther 6.1 God used that little nudge literally to save the nation of Israel.  And centuries later, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, "Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt..." Matthew 2. 13  Another nudge in the night, get up now, even when Joseph did not realize the urgency, nor the looming disaster if he hesitated until morning.

God wanted them to feel uneasy. And do something about it. 

Our first reaction is typically begging God to help us to turn over and go back to sleep.  And yet, an awakened mind and body make us more aware of God.  It is when the LORD once again carries us through.  We cannot survive without sleep.  We cannot thrive without prayer.

God says, "Why do you think I woke you up?"  Not to get a drink of water, change position, or even suffer the aftereffects of too much coffee.  But there are things struggling to the surface to think about, things to pray through, to cover people in desperate places we may not even realize, and embrace those we do know who are struggling with despair.

We can't pretend that this broken world or situation doesn't exist.  But we are inattentive and sometimes so insensitive in the busyness of our days.  But at night, God gets our attention, not to worry or ignore or think problems will go away on their own. Anxiety means trying to handle it on my own. Worry deflates our tires. Fear locks all the doors and shuts off the power.

What if we pray about this?  What if we don't?  More than we can ever imagine.

We cry out, O God, do something.  And He whispers, That's why I put you there. We can stir up a typhoon of worrying. But have we even considered praying about it?  The more uneasy we are, the more we can worry.....or pray. And the more we pray, the more God aligns our hearts with His.  We see Him differently.  We see the difficulty differently. We are more able to see how to go forth and what we can do.  

In his book Outlive, physician Peter Attia discusses the importance of grip strength --what we hold, what we can carry, what we can do.  "Almost all actions begin with the grip...it is our interface with the world.  If our grip is weak, then everything else is compromised."

That is a physical truth bolted to the spiritual, because almost all our actions and reactions are based on what we hold onto.  Or if our hands are gripped in prayer. 

The other night, sleepless, I carefully walked down the hallway in the deep shadows like a person visually impaired.  I knew where the doorways were, the rug ended, the turn into the kitchen, avoiding the desk.  And I asked God in the darkness "Who should I be praying for right now in this moment?" "What are You forming in me through this?" "What should I pray?"  "How should I pray?'  And the Lord's Prayer scrolled through my mind. I began saying it out loud in my own words.  No one could hear me but God Himself -- and Alexa didn't care.

Conversations with God in the middle of the night take on a deeper intimacy.  And often those wee small hours are the only time that God can get our attention.  

If our circumstances appeared smooth and sleek, with everything running on auto-pilot, would we even pray about it at all?  Or recognize our need for Him? Or acknowledge His glory and hand in this?   Ascribe to the LORD the glory due His name. Psalm 29. 2

A sincere struggle may be right in the center of His Will. Something is not right.  God wants us to recognize that the imbalance is from Him. And guides us to do something about it.

When we are uneasy, there is a reason for it. But we can keep praying. 

May we realize that sometimes sleep is not the main event in the night.  But really eternal things are.

As for sleep, Lord, well, make it enough. 

 

I bless the LORD who gives me counsel.

In the night also my heart instructs me.

I keep the LORD always before me.

Because He is at my right hand,

     I shall not be moved.

                 Psalm 16. 7-8 

 

Today's Special

 

On a recent Saturday morning, one of our daughters was helping out a friend at a farmers' market. The counter in the booth was heavily laden with all manner of luscious baked goods, all of which would rapidly be purchased in just a couple hours.

That particular morning, the special of the day consisted of fragrant loaves of focaccia, one type with potato and thyme, one with fresh tomatoes, and yet another stack with figs and rosemary. Needless to say, the aroma lingered in the marketplace, and no big surprise, the loaves sold out quickly.

My husband and I also just spent the last few days of summer break, helping out with four of our grandkids.  To set the stage for the morning, I asked our ten-year -old granddaughter to decide what was today's special, what was her specialty for the day? Use kind words? Get along with the boys? And she and her brothers started reciting (and singing) the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5. 22-23:  Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. 

We don't have to limit ourselves to just one. 

It is not for us to just seek out how to fill the hours before us or how to manage the traffic jam of our responsibilities, but who to be today.  On what can we focus as a through line in this day: to be kind, attentive, or perhaps, faithful in the trenches? We cannot forecast what the day may bring, but we can respond with something different.

Not determining what sensational concoction we can make of this mess, but how to bless others and honor God.  How to seek out and pursue being joyful or loving in these circumstances, attentive to need, or exercising self-control in this situation. What is my specialty today?  

May we go intentionally into the day, ready to pivot around the potholes, be flexible when things don't go as we would want them, creative in the moment, not dwelling on "if I only had this or that," but seizing what we do have to make something beautiful.  Even if  five barley rolls and two fish are all that occupy our proverbial pantry. John 6. 9

There are no ordinary days -- only if we face them that way.  God never intended for us to miss the wonders that He has placed all around us. Or the opportunities. A hard thing may actually be a grace.  Choose this day whom you will serve...as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.  Joshua 24. 15

What should we intentionally infuse into this day that God has graciously given?  Not just what we are going to do, but how we are going to approach and navigate what is before us.  God is not going to demand, "Do this, do that," like an impersonal army commander, but asks us intimately, "What do you see? What do you have here?" Mmmmm, I have a lump of dough, a few potatoes and some thyme. Whatever it may be. 

Not just choosing Today's Special, but realizing Today Is Special, because God created it.  

This is the day which the LORD has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.  Psalm 118. 24 

Now watch how God can use us.