Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep...Ring...Ring

The Rev. Dr. Marian Stewart

LGBTQIA+ Person of Faith

Quote

“Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.”

~Mark 1:35 (NIV)

Devotion

Sleep o glorious sleep. How I want just one hour more.

On this ‘spring forward’ morning of Daylight Savings, I am reminded of all the virtuous exhortations to rise early to pray. Be like Jesus. Rise before dawn, go outside and find a quiet spot to be alone. Pray.

As much as I would like to be more like Jesus, I’m not. This morning, I am falling asleep in his footsteps, unable to rise. Unable to follow. Unable to wake enough to make sense of the coming day. I wonder, how did Jesus rise so early?

In our daily routines of busyness, if we dare to take time away by skipping a meeting, are sluggish to respond to incoming texts and chats, or are slow to upload assignments, we are indicted, sometimes by ourselves, for being slack, no-good, lazy. It is hard to keep up, even on the best of days. Our world moves at a rat-wheel pace. By evening, when we fall asleep, with our devices still beeping and blaring, we collapse onto the pillow, exhausted.

All too soon, the alarm sounds, we hit snooze, sometimes more than once, and gradually drag ourselves into the new day. A quick shower, cup of coffee, and we’re off. Our daily patterns are punctuated by refills of caffeine to ward off the yawns, working lunches at our desks, and take-out suppers. Sometimes I feel like a “rinse and repeat” commercial.

Weekends, if we are lucky, offer a day or two of rest. But this morning, we have to give back that hour we gained in the fall. It’s payback time. Get up. Get going.

I don’t think Jesus ever lost an hour. Even if he did, I don’t think he’d complain. He was like that. He faced busy days of crowds and demands, yet he always got up before the sun and went out to pray. He even skipped the crowds on occasion to find a quiet garden for even more prayer. If he had a hard day, he prayed more.

I must acknowledge my humanness. Even well-rested, I cannot rouse before dawn. I confess that I get up just in time to do the basics before I’m off to work. I’m afraid that if I added time to go outside and settle in to pray, I would fall asleep. I might even sleepwalk through the day. But I love the idea of being virtuous. I also must deal with my self-assigned guilt for falling short.

Maybe you are a lot like me and consider yourself a problem-solver. How do you negotiate a human version of virtuosity? Perfection is a lovely goal, but isn’t there a “good enough” version? Is early morning a requirement?

I will forgive myself for not wanting to give back an hour of sleep this one time each year, but what am I willing to shift to make room for prayer and meditation? Being centered as we go into our day surely must shape our interactions. I imagine being more responsive instead of reactive, being able to breathe instead of gasping in the rush and acting from my values instead of replying with one-line snark. I imagine I might even be a nicer person.

Can prayer really do that? Can it make a difference? Is it worth the time?

Prayer can be done anywhere anytime. It can be formal or not, fancy or plain, short or long, spoken or sung. It can even be silent under the breath. You don’t even have to be super-religious to pray. Prayer is the act of centering one’s thoughts and energy in a specific direction: praying for someone who is going through a hard time, an utterance of thanksgiving and request for safety as first responders race toward danger, or a request for grace in the face of vitriol spewed your way. Of course, there is always room for prayers of gratitude.

Prayer has a way of grounding us in love and respect. It doesn’t necessarily mean hard things will go away – or make our team win – but it focuses our attention on what is important. Jesus modeled finding a quiet space to pray, away from chaos and distraction. I believe he would have left the devices and smartphones behind. Prayer has a different connection point and instead of recharging itself, prayer recharges us. It also has the ultimate grounding plug.

Even if I can’t rise before the sun comes up each day, it is possible to find moments throughout the day to be quiet, to escape the routine, and pray. I don’t think prayer is about timing or a question of quantity, but that we take the time to try. Our sincerity will bring the quality.

Reflection

1. What is your favorite time of day to pray? Do you have a special place?

2. On days you make time to pray, do you feel more centered and grounded?

3. When times are tough, do you make more room for prayer?

Action

And on this day when we’ve lost an hour of sleep, we might even find time for a nap. Blessings for the snoozers. Don’t forget to add a prayer when you wake.