{"id":127,"date":"2012-06-01T10:34:52","date_gmt":"2012-06-01T10:34:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/meditations.kafkasworld.com\/dir\/?p=127"},"modified":"2012-06-01T10:34:52","modified_gmt":"2012-06-01T10:34:52","slug":"arise-oh-sleeper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sheaoakley.com\/index.php\/2012\/06\/01\/arise-oh-sleeper\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cArise, Oh Sleeper\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
\u201cArise, Oh Sleeper\u201d
\nCopyright 2011 by Shea Oakley
\nAll rights reserved<\/p>\n

For many years, too many, I have sought refuge in sleep. I am one of those people who, if left to their own devices, will sleep far too late into the day and wake up not refreshed but, more often, anxious. Perhaps that anxiety comes from a deep sense that I am wasting too much of my life in the fitful darkness of un-needed slumber.<\/p>\n

It is well known that people who are depressed either sleep too much or too little, and during previous periods in that condition mine was the first problem. Now I find that, even though no longer clinically depressed, I often continue to nap when I do not really need one, to \u201csleep in\u201d when I could and most likely should be \u201credeeming the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lately I\u2019ve also wondered about missing the sublime beauty of the morning. I could say that I\u2019ve always been a \u201cnight person\u201d however that would be dishonest. I have been one for most of my life, but not all. The fact is I remember the distant past of my early childhood when I could not wait to get out of bed and into a day filled with good things. These were the things I took for granted in the innocence of that time, wonderful things I thought would always last but didn\u2019t. Yet childhood seemed to me then a sort of world without end, and I didn\u2019t want to miss any of it. In Louis Armstrong\u2019s words I loved both \u201cthe bright, blessed day\u201d and \u201cthe dark, sacred night\u201d. In fact I believe that I loved both equally.<\/p>\n

Now the beginning of the day is a time to drag myself out of a warm bed and face my adult responsibilities and anxieties. I hardly notice the glory of the morning any more and haven\u2019t for many, many years. But recently some of my spiritual meditations have become focused, almost without conscious thought, on light. My mother once told me that the first intelligible word I ever uttered was \u201clight\u201d. I guess I was fascinated by it, as many infants and toddlers are. Now I find myself becoming fascinated by it, in all its forms, once more and perhaps the most beautiful natural light there is is morning light. But that would mean waking up extra-early to sit by a window facing East. That would mean getting less than the absolute maximum amount of sleep I can get away with and, for now, I just do not want to make the effort.<\/p>\n

For now\u2026.<\/p>\n

I suppose I have made a kind of idolatry of sleep. Because of this uncomfortable thought, I do not think it strange that my sleep hasn\u2019t been deeply restful in a very long time, that my dreams are far more often disturbing than not, that the enemy of my soul has always attacked me most horribly and effectively in some of those dreams\u2026.and yet I continue to sleep whenever I can.<\/p>\n

Perhaps it is high time that I ask my believing friends and loved ones to pray for this literal \u201csleeper\u201d to \u201carise\u201d and feel more of the warmth and light of Christ shining upon him. I say this because, left to my own devices, to my own spiritual \u201cstrength\u201d I believe I will continue to use unconsciousness as a refuge from the difficulties of my life rather than a time to be recharged to meet and overcome them\u2026and this is not good.<\/p>\n

The dawn was once magical to me, a long, long time ago. I suspect it could be again and this time with the added grace of perceiving the sunrise as a believer in the One Who arose from His own deeper slumber one bright morning two-thousand years ago\u2026and exceeded even its light with His own.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cArise, Oh Sleeper\u201d Copyright 2011 by Shea Oakley All rights reserved For many years, too many, I have sought refuge in sleep. I am one of those people who, if left to their own devices, will sleep far too late into the day and wake up not refreshed but, more often, anxious. Perhaps that anxiety… <\/p>\n

Read more \u201cArise, Oh Sleeper\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-christian","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6GkOA-23","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":819,"url":"https:\/\/sheaoakley.com\/index.php\/2016\/04\/12\/betrayals-end\/","url_meta":{"origin":127,"position":0},"title":"Betrayal\u2019s End","date":"April 12, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright by Shea Oakley All rights reserved. Trust comes hard. We do not naturally trust God. To put our lives in His hands is a decision we must make, and it often is not the easiest of decisions. The result of the Fall is a dangerous world inhabited by sometimes\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1033,"url":"https:\/\/sheaoakley.com\/index.php\/2017\/05\/02\/when-possessions-possess-us\/","url_meta":{"origin":127,"position":1},"title":"When Possessions Possess Us","date":"May 2, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2017 by Shea Oakley Many thoughtful believers in the First World struggle to various degrees with the connection they feel to their sometimes expensive material possessions. They may repeatedly ask themselves questions like, \u201cAm I enjoying this thing I just purchased for myself more than I enjoy things of\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":400,"url":"https:\/\/sheaoakley.com\/index.php\/2013\/08\/22\/when-relationship-is-not-enough\/","url_meta":{"origin":127,"position":2},"title":"When Relationship is Not Enough","date":"August 22, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"When Relationship is Not Enough Copyright by Shea Oakley All rights reserved There is a tendency in the church today to put a great premium on the concept of \u201chaving a relationship with God\u201d. In fact the phrase is so overused that it has become a clich\u00e9. It is true\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Christian"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":395,"url":"https:\/\/sheaoakley.com\/index.php\/2013\/08\/07\/when-christians-despair\/","url_meta":{"origin":127,"position":3},"title":"When Christians Despair","date":"August 7, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"When Christians Despair Copyright by Shea Oakley All rights reserved \u201cFacing facts as they are produces despair, not frenzy, but real downright despair, and God never blames a man for despair\u2026When a man gets to despair he knows that all his thinking will never get him out, he will only\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Christian"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":437,"url":"https:\/\/sheaoakley.com\/index.php\/2013\/12\/06\/437\/","url_meta":{"origin":127,"position":4},"title":"A Justifiable Question","date":"December 6, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright by Shea Oakley All rights reserved Many believers in the West today do not rest in the love of Christ. We pay lip service to the notion but we do not deeply receive the love He has for us. The evidence of this is the psychological pathology that afflicts\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Christian"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":478,"url":"https:\/\/sheaoakley.com\/index.php\/2014\/02\/27\/true-courage-and-the-defiance-of-fear\/","url_meta":{"origin":127,"position":5},"title":"True Courage and the Defiance of Fear","date":"February 27, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by Shea Oakley. All rights reserved. Someone once spoke of courage as being \u201cresistance to fear, mastery of fear. Not the absence of fear\u201d. For the Christian lacking courage and desiring it as a character trait these are words to live by. Many people wrongly equate bravery with fearlessness. Actually\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Christian"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sheaoakley.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sheaoakley.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sheaoakley.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sheaoakley.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sheaoakley.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sheaoakley.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sheaoakley.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sheaoakley.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}