Root your life in Scripture

"And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams." (Acts 2:17) Do you ever wake up from a night of sleep remembering a vivid dream and wonder, “What on earth was that about? What did I eat before my head hit the pillow?” You might talk about it with a friend and laugh it off, or you might go to the web and look up interpretations of those dreams. We live in a time and in a culture that demands proof in order for us to ...

“Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord, my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord, my soul to take.” First printed in The New England Primer, 1750. “Guide us waking, O Lord, and guard us sleeping; that awake we may watch with Christ, and asleep we may rest in peace.” From “An Order for Compline,” The Book of Common Prayer, 1979. Many people grow up praying a version of the first prayer above. For some, it’s the first religious thing they ever memorize, maybe only slightly edged out by the “God is great, God is good” dinnertime pra...

Though insomnia is a complex and multifaceted condition, anxiety plays a major role. The emotions we feel in our spirit take a toll on our bodies, for we are integrated beings, and it is naive to think we can separate one from the other. Our bodies can sense our fear and detect our distress, sometimes even before we are conscious of it. In this way, we must learn to listen to our bodies- often, they are trying to alert us and get our attention, flagging us down to say, “Stop! Something isn’t right!” I lie down and sleep; I wake again, for the LORD sustains me (Ps 3:5 NRSV).  Taken out of co...