Post 4: Sleep on it
The Notes of Rest Fellowship
Hi everyone,
A big announcement: Our daughter emerged into the world this past weekend! (Don’t worry, this post was scheduled before my wife Carmen delivered.) Carmen and I are so tremendously thankful to God for this gift. Our life will never be the same! Pictures will come later, I promise.
I’ll have two more Tuesday posts for you to finish out this first pass through the Notes of Rest sequence, and then we’ll take some time to pause and reflect before starting Round 2.
Are you enjoying Notes of Rest Fellowship Beta? How has the Fellowship been benefiting you so far? I can't wait to hear the testimony. Let's schedule a moment to assess our progress and establish a rewarding benchmark. As soon as our 25th member becomes part of the group, we're excited to host an intimate virtual event, where we can exchange insights and experiences.
Highlights:
God uses sleep in incredible ways to form and shape us - yield new life, expose vulnerability, provide divine instruction, and call out injustice.
Sleep is a form of grace everybody can get, no matter your actions.
Music helps us relax into sleep, and Black music can help us receive the grace of sleep even when the world is graceless.
Sleep is so important to our life with God. It is a built-in reminder to our lives as creatures that we are vulnerable and in need of constant protection and healing from God. It is a marvel that it is so key to God’s design for our lives and yet so often neglected in our discussions about life with God. And unlike Sabbath, Sleep comes whether we like it or not. We don’t will sleep. We just need to receive this gift of grace.
In Scripture, sleep plays various functions. For one, God uses it to bring about new new life, like in Genesis 2 where Adam is taken into a deep sleep and Eve is brought forth from his side. God saw that Adam was lonely and so God saved him from that loneliness through creating suitable partnership with him. Since the beginning of creation, sleep has been used to move us towards wholeness and towards community. This can help us think about the importance of sleep in a new way. Sometimes we can see sleep as a mere nuisance, especially in our hyper-stimulated culture. But God has much to teach us about life through our sleep practices, if we listen.
How is God bringing forth life from your sleep practices?
Sleep, however, is also a place of vulnerability, like when Noah is asleep in his drunkenness and his sons see him naked in Genesis 9. His sons tried to cover him up because he was shamefully naked, but it ends up backfiring. Noah wakes from his sleep, realizes what has happened, and curses the children of his sons. I wonder if Noah did this because he was feeling naked in more ways than one during his sleep.