Sleep Robbers
Sometimes, when I am just about to fall asleep, a thought comes to me.
Something I had not given much thought to all day just pops in there and its presence takes the sleep away. It is as if that issue needs to be dealt with right then, and nothing else matters.
My brain is trying to tell me something and I am not listening.
'Go to this people and say, You will indeed listen, but never understand, and you will indeed look, but never perceive. - Acts 28:26
In today's reading from the Acts of the Apostles, Paul faces the reality that no matter how hard he tries, he cannot convince some people of the truth he sees and they don't.
Yet, it seems, in those brief moments when we hang somewhere between being fully alert and aware of our surroundings, and totally immersed in the dreamworld, the brain battles take place, and all hell breaks loose. We feel we are falling and our legs twitch. We sense something terrible and we jump.
We are at the edge of control and that means the internal and external worlds cross over each other, giving us a chance to see what we cannot perceive or hear what we have failed to listen to.
All throughout The Bible, we have stories of visions and dreams, where God talks to the prophets and gives them insight and wisdom beyond their means.
We need a way for God to get through to us. We won't listen if He leaves it up to us to find the time for Him.
So it makes sense that He built in a way to get through, a direct line to our subconscious mind, the one that is free of filters and walls and is open to hearing and seeing.
When we get such a message, it robs us of sleep and snaps us awake, just long enough for the message to stick. Without it, we would drift off and forget it.
I like to think that God talks to all of us this way. We all get messages from time to time, but just because we get them and may even hear them, we still have that choice to make. Do we listen and if we do, what do we do with the message?
It takes some of us longer than others, but eventually, we find the message hard to ignore. It may come back to us at the most awkward times, like while driving in the car, or when picking out groceries, or even when we are just about to fall asleep.
I guess we could say that those times when we are not listening is when we are truly asleep.
More to come...
Image Copyright: konradbak / 123RF Stock Photo