Sleeping Soundly

At first, I wasn'’t sure of where they were coming from, these strange sounds in the night. They were a mix of moans and groans, whistles and snores, sighs and heavy breathing. I looked everywhere for their source. I listened near the window, thinking they were coming from the outside. They weren'’t. I explored the basement, walked through every room in the house. Nothing. I checked out the refrigerator, then the furnace, even the chiming clock. No luck from any of these. I began to think that one of two things was possible. Either I was becoming delusional, or zombies were for real. Not wanting to believe that I was nuts, I looked for blood droplets on my pillow. No evidence. What was going on? Who could be at the bottom of these strange sounds in the night? I should have known, but sometimes we miss the most obvious explanation. Baxter!

When Baxter is sound asleep, he isn’t quiet. He make all these weird noises; I suppose to add sound effects to his dreams. He is in such a deep sleep that he is unaware of his noise making but any other creature trying to sleep can’t miss it. He releases a cacophony of sounds from the twilight zone while he blissfully floats in la-la Land. I admire his deep slumber and the utter abandon it conveys. However, the sounds of his peaceful rest create restless discomfort for those of us who have to live with it. Baxter doesn'’t realize it, but his deep sleep keeps others awake, alerted to the sounds his peacefulness generates.

We may have a similar situation in our spiritual lives. We are too restless and distracted to go deeply into reflection on our lives and encounter the God who is revealing Himself to us. We may be so frightened by the sounds around us, that we can’t listen to the silence within us. The world is a noisy place, and we get caught up in its shouts and threats. We may be so disturbed by the sound that others make in their habits of living that we can’t rest in ourselves and listen for the Lord. We don’t want to miss something interesting, so we are always attuned to what someone has to say or what we may overhear. We become focused on the external world so completely that we never enter our own interiority to examine what I truly think, feel and believe about myself, others and my God. We ride life like a wave, and we never dive into its depths to see what is living under the surface. We become spiritually shallow.

Deep sleep gives us a metaphor for how we are to rest in the Lord and contemplate His goodness. It’s not about trying to get to sleep and dream. Rather, it is about allowing ourselves to relax in the presence of God as to be taken away by the encounter. We forget where we are, what time it is, what others are doing, and simply fall into the embracing arms of our loving God. We allow God to take the lead, while we rest, while we let go of whatever is disturbing us. We focus on the moment in prayer, and we give no regard either to what happened in the past or what may occur in the future. We are absorbed in the present where God is with us in peace.

Like Baxter, Christians should make strange sounds in our world today. Not snorts and sighs or whistles and moans because we are asleep, but shouts of peace, forgiveness, compassion, justice and respect because we rest in the Lord. We have nothing to fear from those sounds.