Treasured Friend,
If you care
to listen, I am prepared to recite, by memory, the complete TV listing for
midnight through five a.m. – weekday and weekend, satellite and over-the-air,
network and local. I know which (few) channels are safe to leave yammering in
the background in the unlikely event that I drift off for a few moments of
sweet slumber. I also can posit with a fair degree of accuracy the percentage
by which the number of commercials for sleep aids, space-age mattresses, and
CPAP equipment multiplies exponentially during that time slot. Those and cancer-center
ads.
Ask me how I
know. Ask me how I know you know.
You tell me
if it’s our age, our stage of life, or our frenetic place in history that makes
insomnia epidemic to our generation.
I succumbed
while my dad was in the cancer ward. Late-night updates from his nurses or
calls from him begging us to come, quick, to intercede with the medical team
became routine during those months. Sleep patterns changed—and I learned that
now, as when I was a co-ed, I can survive long-term on mere snatches of stolen shut-eye.
Mom
succumbed when we brought Dad home between bouts—and she rose several times a
night to check on him. What she didn’t know was that I’d rise several times a
night to check on her, checking on Dad.
Even since
Dad transferred on up to heaven, Mom and I have continued to keep the night
watch. Sometimes together. More often each alone with her own troubling
thoughts.
Recently, I
began wondering whether any old-time Bible folks ever battled this malady. After
a search of Bible passages, I’m here to tell you that they did. It seems the torture
techniques of our mortal enemy haven’t changed over the millennia. Since we
have to find a way to cope, I’d bet we could learn a fair bit from how those
folks handled the terrors of the interminable hours between sunset and dawn.
Both Job and
the Psalmists chronicled many instances of lying awake on their beds. Worse,
yet, King David got himself (and Bathsheba and a slew of supporting players)
into heaps of trouble because of his sleeplessness.
By contrast,
Jesus had no trouble snatching forty winks in the stern of a boat that was
rockin’ and rollin’ in a dynamite storm. Because Jesus trusted His Father’s
loving care, He slept peacefully in the middle of the chaos. The disciples, not
so much. When they woke Him, Jesus cut to the heart of their panic and ours:
“Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?” (Mark 4:40, NASB). He nailed
’em. And He nailed me. You too?
I suppose the
reason those hours drag on for us is our fears loom larger in the dark, at the
exact moment when deprivation of light makes our faith shrivel. Joseph Bayly,
grieving the loss of three sons, wrote this challenge: “Don’t forget in the
darkness what you learned in the light.” What is it that we’re supposed to have
learned in the light? The Psalmist, after begging God to listen to his panicked
prayer, gives us a faith-building answer:
But know that the LORD
has set apart the godly man for Himself;
The LORD hears
when I call to Him.
Tremble, and do not sin;
Meditate in your heart upon your bed, and be still. …
In peace I will both lie down and sleep,
For You alone, O LORD,
make me to dwell in safety (Psalm 4:3-4,
8 NASB).
To
paraphrase, here’s what he called to mind to calm his worried, wide-awake mind:
God knows me.
God listens to me.
My safety (and that of my loved ones) isn’t in my hands. It’s
in the hands of the God Who knows me, loves me, and hears my prayer.
So, then, I can lie still on my bed. I can even dare to sleep.
It seems
simplistic—unless you’ve learned in the light of many years that God can be trusted. The loving God of the
Old and New Testaments always was faithful to His people—and He never changes.
I don’t know
whether this will help us actually sleep, but it can keep us from flailing through
the post-midnight hours, fearing the lurking shadows.
I’m willing
to give it a try. Let me know if you going to try it too.Blessings and prayers, Julie
© 2015, Julie-Allyson Ieron. All rights reserved. For reprint permission, email: orders@joymediaservices.com
