Go to Bed!

It is 3:45 am and I am still up. I tried falling asleep, I think I might have drifted off for a few moments, but alas ... to no avail. I'm still awake. I think this is one of those things that goes along with getting old. The worst thing is that I never know when this is going to hit. It's actually been a problem the last few days. And, for want of a better explanation, it's cyclical. So, here I am.

This has been a weird week. I took Wednesday off because I felt horrendous. It actually started on Monday, by Tuesday I felt awful and Wednesday morning I knew I just needed to keep sleeping. Thursday was nuts and Friday evening I had the first of two concerts this weekend for Canticum Novum. I was a little stressed about that.

I slept in this morning until 9:40. I never do that! My body kicks me out of bed by 7:00 at the latest anymore. See, I'm tired. I slept for 1/2 hour this afternoon while Max was watching Ohio State football, but that wasn't nearly enough to keep me up this late. I simply can't get my brain to turn off. Television either annoys me or overstimulates my mind at this point, so the screen is dark.

I wonder why I'm up? In just a few minutes, Leica is going to beg me to take her outside. She can't have this much activity happening with expecting to be let out. I don't blame her, I can't have this much activity happening without heading for the bathroom either!

I was speaking with Fran today about 'Sabbath'. I've been thinking a lot about this lately. In fact, I'm betting that I've blogged about it. But, oh well ... it is still on my mind. When you read Exodus 20 and consider the 10 Commandments, does it occur to you that 'remembering the Sabbath and keeping it holy' is actually one of the commandments? It's not a suggestion, it ranks up there with 'do not kill' or 'do not steal'. If we take those seriously, how can we ignore this one?

Since I've been thinking a lot about this commandment in the last several weeks, I was kind of hoping to come to some type of conclusion about how to make this a part of my life. I haven't been able to. I guess I don't even know what it means to me!

In days of yore, the Sabbath was a day set aside for scripture reading and attending church. Nothing much happened and children were generally bored stiff. We have rejected that lifestyle to the point that we work hard every single day of the week and get no rest. We work at our jobs for 5-6 days a week and our weekends become a mad rush to complete all of our personal tasks before we head back to our jobs.

Don't think for a minute that I am not as guilty of this as every one else. I may not do a million tasks and activities during my weekend, but I'm certainly not setting aside a day for 'holiness'. No, I make no judgments on anyone.

But, wow ... it really is time for me to begin to consider what God would like to see my Sabbath look like!

Alright, it's now 4 am. I'm going to run the dog outside and then I'm going to try again for sleep. I may not make it to church in the morning. Poor Max will have to go alone. I think that 3 hours of sleep might be as bad as just staying up all night! We'll see what happens.

Diane, go to bed!