Me: Emergency Alert woke me up at 3:45 am. Flash flood warning. (A million thoughts immediately bombard my brain.) It is 5:00 am now. Yes, I am normally up by now anyway, but I just want a little more sleep. I will set the alarm for 6:00 am and get a little more rest.
Inside my brain after I lay down: Your laptop is fully charged. You have work to do.
Me: Just a little sleep. There will be time for that later.
My brain: You are not going to sleep. I won’t let you.
Me: But it has been storming for hours and I have not been sleeping well and I really want just a little more sleep! I need it.
My brain: You can try but it is a waste of time.
Me: (Sitting up, grabbing glasses, turning off alarm for 6:00 am, opening laptop, following through on the work given to me.) So what should I write today? The conversation you just had with yourself.
I can’t help but think about the garden. Jesus asked them to pray. They kept falling asleep. He found them sleeping. As He was preparing for their salvation, they slept. I wonder if any of them had problems sleeping after that night.
Social media is full of reasons people are not sleeping well. I have even researched why my sleep has not been as abundant as it once was. I blame age, health, stress, my husband. I have changed medication. I have tried magnesium. I turn the thermostat down. You name it and I have tried it. I need my sleep.
Years ago, I found myself waking around 4:00 am everyday. No alarm, even though I always have it set, it rarely goes off. That trend has continued. When I get up early, I know there is one primary reason. To do what I am doing right now. It is the work I do before I do other work.
But this work gives me perspective. I spend a little time focused on what God is showing me. And I type it out. Early on in doing this thing I do, I called it clicking keys. The clicking of these keys focuses my brain and keeps out the distractions that attempt to pull me away. Like sleep.
God hasn’t called me to be a missionary on the other side of the world. (Well, up to this point anyway!) He hasn’t given me a difficult task, although this can be daunting for me most days. He has given me a way to share about Him, for even one person that may need to hear it.
What is your work? Do you ever find yourself falling asleep in the middle of it? Yes, I know it could be a medical condition but I am not a medical professional so I will leave that to someone else. But I do know for me, sometimes my sleep is from laziness. Sometimes it is avoidance. Sometimes it is truly being tired and needing rest.
But this morning, before I picked up my laptop, it was an internal argument with God. No one reads this stuff. Why do I have to do this? It isn’t making any difference. But that isn’t my call to make. I am just called to do it.
Here’s your encouragement: Do the work He has called you to do. You may never see the full results of whatever you are doing but He is faithful. He will take any of my inefficiencies and lacking and turn them into something for His glory. He never ceases to amaze me! Let Him amaze you.
