Reflect
“If in bed, I say: When shall I arise?
then the night drags on; I am filled with
restlessness until the dawn.” –Job 7:4
Have you ever felt that terrible feeling of being unable to sleep? The house settles down, lights turn out, the world is dark and still, and all around you people are sleeping, but you can’t. You close your eyes, try to stay motionless, but sleep won’t come. Instead, you listen to the silence of the house, or the breathing of someone sleeping nearby, and begin to grow anxious, possibly even resentful. That restlessness of mind and body can seem inescapable, becoming a kind of trap. The Job poet captures the feeling with great pathos. But it isn’t just about sleep, is it? That restless feeling of helplessness and exhaustion… It’s something many of us face every day whether awake or asleep: living lives of quiet desperation, as the poet says. Like Job, we may even feel hopeless and abandoned. Confused and afraid. And, like Job, sometimes the only thing we can do is cry out to God: Why?
Pray
Lord,
Why is my heart so restless?
Why is my flesh so restless?
Hungering always for food,
for comfort, for pleasure, sensation, touch?
Give me peace, Lord,
take away all my anxieties and fears
and let me rest in You.
Act
Think about the place or time when you felt most at peace in your life. Was it on a vacation? Or during a family gathering? Or were you alone? Were you laughing with joy or were you sitting quietly with friends? Go back to that time and place in your imagination and let yourself feel that peace again. Close your eyes and look around at the people, the place, listen to the voices or to the quiet sound of leaves stirring in a breeze. Slowly breathe in and let yourself feel the peace spreading through you, into your lungs and through your veins, and out to the ends of your fingers and toes. Let the peace of that memory begin to glow within you. Slowly breathe out the tension and the anxieties, as you pray: Jesus, I trust in You.
