Rev Keith Cobb Hollywood Presbyterian Church in Hollywood Church EPC

4 years ago

A Short Devotional Series on SLEEP. No. 2 Considering that our bodies could have been created so we would never have to rest and that we could have been, therefore, so much more productive, it seems strange we would have been designed with this “limitation.”  Think about it: we spend fully 30 percent of our lives sleeping – “wasted” time in terms of usefulness – that’s over 22 years in the twilight zone IF a person makes it to the average lifespan of 74 years old! Yet God, in His infinite wisdom, designed us – of necessity – to have to stop for refreshment, and gave to us as a gift, sleep.    For one, it is at the approach to our beds that we can put down life’s burdens, a lesson God would have us learn to do not only at bedtime, but all the time (1 Peter 5:7) – we just get to better realize this when the sleep urge takes over.  Bedtime also gives opportunity for joyous anticipation of mental and emotional renewal; God IS, after all, concerned for our joy (Nehemiah 8:8; Philippians 4:4). Jesus, Who perfectly kept all the commandments (including the Sabbath observance), not only slept, but even compelled His disciples to “Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest awhile” (Mark 6:31, KJV; wordsmith and prophet Vance Havner to quip in commenting on this verse “Either we come apart and rest awhile - or we just plain come apart!”).  A good night’s sleep does indeed make a good day’s work a good deal more pleasant.     47 million American adults, nearly 25% of the adult population, are increasingly sleep deprived.  Whereas in 1910, the average person slept 9 hours a night, by 1975, the total had fallen to 7.5 hours and by 2002 the National Sleep Foundation’s research discovered American sleeps only 6.9 hours a night.  As might be expected, fatigue and exhaustion and peripheral health issues related to them are on the increase (www.sleep-deprivation.com). Perhaps this is due in part to our culture’s significance-obsessed, driven-for-success lifestyle, or it may be attributable to the physiological manifestations of psychological and emotional stress.  Then again, there also is an abundance of “night owls” who simply lack the self-discipline to turn off the TV or pull themselves away from the computer or smart phone.  Causes, excuses – whichever – ignoring God’s command to rest is not good.