I really don’t have much trouble sleeping. Over the last few days I have enjoyed several
extended naps, even late afternoon and evening naps, and had no trouble getting
to sleep when it was time for the extended night nap. Furthermore, when I am asleep I am asleep. I
can sleep through storms or noise or worry.
I know that others struggle with sleep and I am blessed that I have the
gift of restful, productive slumber.
I am, however, prone to somnambulism, sleep walking, in
other areas of my life. I can do really
great things, experiencing stretches of creative productivity, but I’ll also
find myself dozing through dozens of daily duties. I’ll sleep walk as a dad, as a husband, as an
employee but in these cases I catch myself and wake up and engage.
It’s easy to snap out of it really. There are real tangible consequences and
implications for drifting across the center line of life. Kids grow up fast and
you don’t want to miss it. Marriage is an awesome gift but you don’t want to
take it for granted. Your job relies on you to be productive and your family
relies on you to provide. And so, like
rumble strips preventing a sleepy driver from disaster, life has built in
rumble strips to keep you on track. (Some of my favorites come in the form of
requests: “Dad do you want to play a
game, jump on the trampoline, go outside…” “Are you going to come tuck us in?”
It’s not hard to stay on track when you have motivations like these!)
There is an area that I’m less likely to shake out of when I
experience an ambulatory coma. The area is my Christian walk, my relationship
with Jesus, especially when it comes to my engagement in prayer and in the Word
of God. Some of the habits of Christian discipline come easy to me. Attending church and Sunday school, teaching
classes, fellowshipping with believers, all seem simple in comparison to
engaging in an active prayer life and reading the Bible.
External rumble strips are available in these areas no
doubt. I have friends who ask me to pray
for them. Rumble, rumble, “Wake up Ben – Pray”.
I have friends tell me about the things they are reading in the Bible or
how they are engaged in the Word. Rumble, rumble, “Wake up Ben – Read”. Still, even when these prompts induce action
it is all too often short lived and or even worse ignored.
C.S. Lewis writes about inaction through his characterization
of the Demons efforts in The Screwtape
Letters. In the demon Screwtape’s advice to his nephew about corrupting his
human he indicates the following.
No amount of piety in his imagination and affections
will harm us if we can keep it out of his will.
As one of the humans has said, active habits are strengthened by
repetition but passive ones are weakened.
The more often he feels without acting, the less he will be able ever to
act, and, in the long run, the less he will be able to feel.
I recognize the truth in this admonition yet in its truth I
also must acknowledge a reflection of my own reality. The less likely I am to
act on the prompts to read and to pray increases the temporal distance between
prompts (or recognition of) and increasingly minimizes the impact of those
prompts on me to act.
So what’s next? One thing is to take this rumbling right now
and act, pray, read. The other is to search and pray for a way for those actions
to be sustained. The areas I mentioned
above are easy to be corrected by because they are right in my face. There are physical agents that get in my face
to wake me up and help me maintain my discipline as a husband, father and
employee.
God could get in my face in whatever way He wants to and
sometimes he does through friends or other prompts but He doesn’t typically
work that way. However he has provided
two significant ways to be continually challenged, and encouraged and engaged
but for them to be effective they have to be used. Act, pray, read. As I know
from stronger seasons, if I only engage God will take care of the rest.
