Halloween is over and done. Are you over your sugar high yet? I wonder if Halloween fits well in our holiday schedule, since all the candy we consume at the end of October and beginning of November serves to keep us going through the hustle and bustle of Thanksgiving and Christmas? Just a thought.
If you’re like me, you know that this time of year only amps up what was already a busy schedule with more busyness. It doesn’t end. For some of us, what we really need is not sugar or caffeine intravenously pumped into our arms. We need more than just a few days off work around Christmas; we even need more than a month off to detox and be refreshed.
What we really need is a rhythm of rest. No, I did not just cuss at you. This isn’t a curse word or an impossible ideal. It’s a spiritual truth that even Jesus communicated to His disciples and practiced. "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28).
I remember one of my first chapel lessons as a freshman at Indiana Wesleyan University. Keith Drury, one of the professors of religion, spoke about how the temptation for us would be to bask in our freedom and compete with our roommates for who could pull the all-nighters. And then he said that rest is a spiritual issue that we should not take lightly. He’s right. If we are called to be holy—set apart to God—what better way than to get rest when the rest of the world doesn’t?
Listen to what James Bryan Smith says in his book, The Good and Beautiful God.
He continues: “What does this have to do with Christian spiritual formation? The human person is not merely a soul housed in a body. Our bodies and souls are unified. If our bodies suffer, so do our souls.” If we want God to form us into the image of Christ, sleep must be one of the first areas we surrender to God. As an act of trust, we tell Him, “Father, I know there is more I could do. I am trusting you to guide me this week, to help me fulfill my responsibilities in less time than what I’m used to.”
You say, “But you don’t know what my schedule looks like. There’s no way I can get eight hours of sleep a night.” Maybe you can’t this week, but I know it’s possible. Find a time to go to bed and a time to get up, and stick with them. For me it is 11:00PM and 7:00AM.
And just think: As we allow God to form us spiritually, our children, our families, and our friends have an inside track to the grace and provision of God in us. By the simple act of sleeping eight hours a night, we speak volumes to those around us.
So when are you going to bed tonight?
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