Tag: sleep

Posted in Through the Bible Devotions

Sleeping on the job

Posted on by William Douthwaite

Some “through the bible” thoughts from Matthew 8.

“Behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep” (Matthew 8:24).

This time when I read these words, I thought of Elijah’s contest with the prophets of Baal in 1 Kings 18. (I’ve written about that before here and here.) After the prophets of Baal cry out to their God for half a day, Elijah taunts them, “Maybe he’s sleeping!” (1 Kings 18:27) God’s people counted on the truth that “He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep” (Psalm 121:4).

But now here’s Jesus fast asleep when his disciples need him the most. Their boat is small, the storm is big, and they are all going to die! At least they knew Jesus could help them. They woke him up and pleaded, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing” (8:25). I don’t Jesus was happy that they disturbed him. He rebukes them for their small faith, and then he rebukes the wind and the waves, “and there was a great calm” (8:26). It didn’t take much for Jesus to control the weather. You could say that he could do it in his sleep. (If I were texting you, I’d add an lol.)

We need a fully human Savior, so we shouldn’t be surprised when he takes a nap. We need a fully divine Savior, too, so his handle on the weather shouldn’t surprise us either. However in this moment, in this boat, Jesus is full of surprises, as he usually is. He’s always going to be more than we can figure out, better than we expect, and beyond our imagination.

Posted in Through the Bible Devotions

Finding Sweet Sleep: Biblical Wisdom from Proverbs 3

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by Shane on Unsplash

A “through the bible” devotion from Proverbs 3.

There is no shortage of advice on how to get a good night’s sleep. No screens an hour before bedtime. No eating or drinking a couple hours before. No caffeine after lunch. An evening workout. A warm bath. A good book. A cool room. A comfortable bed, pillow, and sheets.

Benedryl, melatonin, Ambien, Sominex, warm milk, almonds, high-carb snack.

Those are just the ones I’ve recently heard. I’m sure there are many more.

I came across this one in the bible:

If you lie down, you will not be afraid;
    when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet (Proverbs 3:23)

Sounds good. What is the secret to that sweet sleep?

It starts a few verses earlier, in the encouragement to find wisdom and understanding.

Blessed is the one who finds wisdom,
    and the one who gets understanding (Proverbs 3:13).

The writer isn’t talking about any wisdom and understanding, but that which comes from trusting God, leaning on God, fearing God, honoring God, and following his ways.

My son, do not lose sight of these—
    keep sound wisdom and discretion,
and they will be life for your soul
    and adornment for your neck (Proverbs 3:21,22).

Then you will walk on your way securely,
    and your foot will not stumble.
If you lie down, you will not be afraid;
    when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet (Proverbs 3:23,24).

A life rooted and built up in Christ, a faith firmly established in him, full of gratitude is safe and secure. You can rest easy and sleep well because you know he’s taking care of you.

I think it’s interesting that sleep has a spiritual as well as a physical dimension. It’s as much about resting your soul as it is getting rest for your body. In the bible, a soul thirsts, hungers, gets weary and needs rest.

How nice to know that God arranges for that. He’s faithful, powerful, wise, and understanding. His steadfast love endures forever. You don’t have to worry. You can rest easy.

And you can get some sweet, sweet sleep.

Posted in Through the Bible Devotions

Night school

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by Shane on Unsplash

A “through the bible” devotion from Psalm 16.

This is my favorite psalm, so I could write lots of devotions on this, but this time I’ll focus on the words, “In the night my heart instructs me” (Psalm 16:7).

I recently read this insight: “Our spiritual life doesn’t go on hold when we sleep.” That makes sense. We breathe and our hearts beat. We move around a lot when while we sleep. Mentally, our brains sort out all the information we’ve taken in, sometimes causing us to dream.

What about our spiritual lives?

Maybe you’ve had this experience. You went to bed with a lot on your mind. You may have tossed and turned with thoughts about what you had to deal with the next day. But in the morning, things didn’t seem so bad. Life seemed manageable. The new day was filled with new possibilities.

Here are some awesome lessons to learn here:

  • Fill you heart with solid truth. Make sure it is infused with God’s Word. If your heart is going to be your instructor, make sure it went to a good school. Before you close your eyes, read God’s promises.
  • Just go to sleep. I believe one of the most faithful things a believer can do is go to sleep at night, trust God to take care of everything, and look forward to a new day in the morning.
  • When you wake up, take inventory of how you feel. Does the day ahead feel overwhelming or manageable? I usually experience the latter. God has indeed been faithful!
  • Did you dream? Write it down! Immediately. If I don’t, I forget it. Will it mean something? Who knows?

God’s up all night taking care of things. I can rest securely in him.

Posted in Sunday

Sunday-ing on a cool, rainy morning

Posted on by William Douthwaite

The usual morning routine? Forget it. These two just went back to bed.

As usual, Willow’s singing greeted me as soon as I got out of bed at six-ish in the morning. She’s the three-and-a-half-old Great Dane, and I don’t completely trust her yet, so as soon as I open up her crate, I let her into the backyard, where she immediately takes care of business, both numbers one and two.

When we come back inside, we let Winston (the Westie) out of his crate. He would gladly sleep in another few hours, but he doesn’t want to miss anything, so he trots out to see what’s up. Both intently watch me as I get their food and set it out on opposite sides of the gate. I announce, “Okay,” and nothing else matters. In under a minute, the food is gone.

We then head out back so Winston can do his thing in the backyard. From there, the dogs usually wrestle around, chew on some pine cones, fight over stuffed animal toys, play some tug of war with an old rope, and drink water like they’ve just crossed the dessert.

But this morning was different. Fifty-degree temperatures and a light steady rain prompted a new agenda. After a quick breakfast and visit to the backyard, both dogs went back to sleep. Willow curled up in one of her favorite chairs while Winston chose the dog bed up on the patio table.

If you’re going to Sunday, you might as well do it right.

Posted in Moments of grace

I slept through another tornado last night

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by Shane on Unsplash

My phone lit up about 6:30 this morning. It was a text from my daughter. “Hey, are you and mom okay? I saw that a tornado touched down just a couple streets from you. Hope you all are okay and safe.”

Okay, heard the rain last night. And at one point, I heard sirens off in the distance. I checked some news apps and sure enough, an F2 tornado touched down less than a mile from our house, blowing away fences, damaging roofs, and leaving a ton of debris in its wake.

My wife poked her head in where I was sitting and said, “I just got a text about a tornado in our neighborhood.” We opened the blinds and looked out the front window. Not one tree branch in our yard. Plenty of rain in the swale, though. We both breathed a sign of relief.

This is not the first tornado I’ve slept through. Ten years ago, another touched down about a mile away, damaging many more homes.

I don’t always sleep through the night, but the sounds of rain and wind can be so soothing and relaxing that I’ll miss all the excitement. That is, unless tree branches torn loose by storm winds are hitting my roof. Then I lie awake wondering what in the world is going on out there. I also wonder how much I’m going to have to clean up the next day.

While we know a hurricane is headed our way a week in advance, tornadoes drop in unexpectedly. One minute you’re sound asleep. The next, your roof is gone or there’s a tree in your bedroom. You don’t know when it’s going to hit.

Around lunch time, I took my dog for a walk and we headed in that direction to see what there was to see. The closer we got, the more debris we saw in yards. We saw the remains of fences. And we saw a whole bunch of traffic trying to drive through the affected neighborhood, so we walked back the way we came.

I read somewhere that “sometimes the most faithful thing you can do is crawl into bed, close your eyes, and sleep.” There’s not much I can do about the storm. I guess I’ll just have to trust the one who can.

Posted in 2022 Lent Devotions

Asleep

Posted on by William Douthwaite

“Mirror of the Passion” Lent devotion for March 13, 2022. Photo by bruce mars on Unsplash

“And when [Jesus] rose from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow, and he said to them, ‘Why are you sleeping?'” (Luke 22:45,46)

I can see myself in that group of sleeping disciples. I doze off watching TV at night. I’ve struggled to stay awake during conference presentations. And conference worship sermons. My eyelids get heavy every afternoon about 1:30. A nice big meal with a few glasses of wine (the Passover meal) must have made it difficult to stay awake for an evening prayer meeting.

Now sometimes, Jesus stayed up all night praying (Luke 6:12). He had met with Nicodemus after dark. Just a few years ago, the disciples’ routine was staying out all night, casting their nets from the fishing boats.

But this night was different. At the meal, Jesus told the disciples it would be his body broken and his blood poured out. Then he dropped the betrayal and denial bombs. On top of that, they would soon need moneybags, knapsacks and swords. I think they were emotionally drained. Exhausted. They found it impossible to stay awake.

As I shared with the congregation in a sermon just a few days ago, it’s hard to pray for an hour. I remember trying to fill a one-hour slot in a twenty-four hour prayer vigil. When I glanced at my watch after a long list of petitions, I saw I had only fifty-three more minutes to go. It’s a lot harder than it sounds.

At least it is when you feel like you have to do all the talking. But if prayer is actually a conversation, you can listen, too. Jesus can pray for an hour or all night. Let him do the heavy lifting. Listen to his voice. Read the word aloud. The red letters. Lots of psalms. Take some notes. Write down a few questions. Draw some pictures. Nowhere in the bible does it say you have to fold your hands, bow your head, and close your eyes to pray. I don’t even know who came up with that posture. In the bible, don’t people lift their heads, raise their hands, and shout to the Lord?

I know you’ve read about folks who get up early to pray for two or three hours each day. I’m not one of them. As I mentioned above, I’m lucky if I last seven minutes. Long texts on my phone. Sorry, I zone out after one screen. A more-than-one-page Christmas letter? I scan the pictures. If you ask me to pray before a meal, don’t worry. Your food will still be hot. I max out at 30 seconds. I get to the point.

Lord, I’m awake. But I might drift off any minute. Thanks for hearing my prayer. Amen.