Sleep Tight

Naturally, I'm much more of an owl than a lark.

I could happily stay awake until the wee hours of the morning, working and socialising, and then sleep in until around 10. But sadly the real world doesn't work like that and, as I am back to work next week, I have been trying to adjust my body clock from my indulgent owl-like holiday sleep patterns.

However, I have so far been unsuccessful. It usually takes me around 45 minutes (no exaggeration) of snoozing to actually come round from the comatose state in which I find myself first thing in the morning.

To try and reduce this, I thought I would set a radio alarm this morning, rather than just the usual alarm, to see if this might provide a more gentle and gradual arousal to consciousness.

However, I seemed so anxious that I would in fact sleep straight through this alarm that I kept waking up every hour wondering what time it was and if I should have been awake already. Coupled with the start of back-to-work dream scenarios, I can't say I felt especially refreshed this morning.

There's little in life as deeply dissatisfying as a bad night's sleep: sometimes I almost wish I hadn't bothered going to bed, I feel so unrested by the morning.

However, the Bible reassures us that we can enjoy restful and peaceful sleep when God is on our side:

"I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety."

[Psalm 4:8 NIV]

And in a different translation this verse reads,

"At day's end I'm ready for sound sleep, For you, God, have put my life back together."

[Psalm 4:8 MSG]

I can lie down and rest in peace because God is for me and is working to restore me.

Now that's what I call sleeping tightly.

A Balanced Life

I am sure we are all familiar with the phrase "a work/life balance". 

However, I would venture to say that, whilst we are familiar with it in principle, it is rarely a reality in our lives.  Instead, for most of us, our lives are dominated by our work.  Far from the '9-5' cliché, we find our work encroaching on our evenings and our weekends.  With a growing trend in flexi-hours and working from home, we are now unable to easily separate these two aspects of our lives.

Sometimes I feel that my attempts at a work/life balance are rather like a fat kid on a see-saw.  They are unfairly weighted.  My life is dominated by my work, and my attempts at a 'life' are like the weasly kid suspended in the air at the other end of the see-saw.

This is something with which I have wrestled and struggled for a long while.

I felt that work was something to get through and something to endure until the weekend.  It was separated from the rest of my life and was of no importance to God.

But recently I feel that God has been showing me how important my work is, and how important work is to all of our lives.

God created Adam and Eve to work in the Garden of Eden.  Work wasn't a punishment, but a blessing:

      "God created human beings;

      he created them godlike,

      Reflecting God's nature.

      He created them male and female.

      God blessed them: 

      'Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge!

      Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air,

      for every living thing that moves on the face of Earth.'"

     

      [Genesis 1:27-28 MSG]

God cares about my work along with all other aspects of my life: my friendships, my relationships, what book I'm reading, what film I'm watching, what I'm enjoying, what I'm struggling with. 

He cares about it all, and He wants us to acknowledge Him in it all.

"Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men."

[Colossians 3:23 NIV]

Rather than striving for a work/life balance, I am aiming for a balanced life.   A life balanced with work and relaxing and resting and playing and studying and relationship and solitude and eating and fasting and praying and thinking and indulging and refraining and talking and listening ...

A balanced life.