Sleep

Today I shared with a friend what has been going on in my life. There are exciting items of interest to report and while I wrote my email to him, tired washed over me, a truly physical lack of sleep do to circumstances beyond my control tired. As I wrote I said I don't know whether to go out and save the world or eat ice cream.  The thought has stayed and my saboteur, the one that tells me I am not doing enough and that rest is a waste of time, attempted to beat me up and make me feel the familiar guilt of having the luxury to choose rest when many in the world are struggling to survive. Useless, the argument is useless and so was I, until after my afternoon nap. Jesus lived on the earth for thirty three years. He spoke about Heaven and His Father and salvation for the last three of those years before His predicted crucifixion, all the while performing miracles of healing and resurrecting the dead, the foreshadowing of what is to come for believers, those who except his gift of perfect sacrifice for our sins, mine and yours. Jesus took time alone, to meditate and commune with His Father and be tended to by angels. He modelled the balance of work and rest that we as humans need. Does God need rest?  Biblically, on the seventh day He rested...I don't think He needed it, I think He modelled it for us and it is every humans right to do so when the need arises.  This brings me to purpose, the command of loving one another and helping the vulnerable, the sick needy orphans and widows and whomever else in the world that God puts before me, before you, to remind us of how good it can be and how sometimes very hard it can be in life.  Sleep is restorative and inarguably natural, even Jesus slept during raging storms while others thought they would perish.  If these sound like excuses to rest and nap, then I dare you, stay awake every night for the rest of the week and see how useful you are as each day slips into the next!  We are wonderfully made, for work, for rest, for play and I will not let a saboteur suggest otherwise without calling on the facts to prove it wrong~but for the Grace of God go I, whether it be off to work or bed, it's all alright with Him.