Like a lot of other people, I have sleep issues. To function at my best I need at least six hours of good sleep every night. I am a light sleeper so conditions have to be perfect for me to fall asleep: little to no sounds and a dark room. I’ve used oils, medications, eye masks, every pillow on the market, relaxation techniques, and several “as seen on TV” gadgets to seek the illusive creature called a restful night’s sleep. I’ve read some articles about the issue and many of them have spoken of the amount of light and even what kind of light you are seeing right before bed will influence how the brain reacts.

Sleep issues are a great metaphor for the Christian life. We pack our days with endless tasks and activities. We fill our minds with a constant stream of input and avoid quiet as if it were a plague. We are trained like Pavlov’s dogs to immediately look at our phones as soon as a buzz, ring, or other sound effect notifies us of something else to do, look at, or communicate with. Being a Martha is trending and popular while Mary is out…..way out. To unwind after all the noise and business, we seek other forms of input stimulation to relax: TV, social media, YouTube, etc. and wash it all down with a big glass of wine or bowl of ice-cream and make lists for the next day. We don’t know how to rest; we don’t know how to be quiet. As weary believers we have fallen asleep spiritually. Satan croons a worldly and distracting lullaby as the Body of Christ, the Church, falls asleep as well.

We find ourselves, the Church, at a critical juncture in history. As individual Jesus followers we are exhausted and have forgotten how to rest but as the Body of Christ as a whole we don’t know how to wake up. The answer to both can be found in the Light. As I stated earlier light can disrupt or sooth depending on the kind we choose. In Ephesians 5:14NIV, Paul urges us, “Wake up sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you”; and in 5:8NIV he tells us to “live as children of light”.

First we need to be children of His soothing Light. We need to bask in His goodness, His truth, His radiance, and His love. The rest for our weary spirits isn’t going to found in anything else but Him. He built us that way. Get quiet. “Do” less and “be” more and then your doing will be more. His companionship day by day and moment by moment will sustain and restore all you need to propel us to be children of His disruptive light. Yes, Jesus came to disrupt our spiritual stupor. We must rise up and stand for His truth and it must be done in love. It is the only way. Our nation and our world await the rise of the sleeping giant, His bride, the Church. Would you have the audacity to ask Him to disrupt and ruin your life to anything that is not according to His purposes for you? To live as a child of the Light will fulfill, restore, and refresh like nothing else ever will.

We don’t know for sure who wrote the Old Testament book, Song of Solomon (sometimes referred to as Song of Songs) but we do know that all Scripture is God-breathed. This book is a love song and that is exactly what God sings to us. While Satan uses the trappings and business of the world to lull us to sleep, our Good, Good Father is singing this to us:

Song of Solomon 2: 10-13NIV : “My beloved spoke and said to me, ‘Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, come with me. See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone. Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land. The fig tree forms its early fruit; the blossoming vines spread their fragrance. Arise, come, my darling; my beautiful one, come with me.'”

We have not rested in Him enough and we’ve been asleep in the world too long. Walk, rest, work, sit, love, serve, and soak in His Light.

Arise, my love!