There’s hardly a week goes by that we don’t see some story on the news about another plague affecting Americans. Cancer, jealousy, sub-prime mortgages (whatever those are!). It’s always something.

How about this one:
• It afflicts 70 million Americans and is faulted for 38000 deaths each year.
• The condition annually costs the U.S. $70 billion dollars worth of productivity.
• Teenagers suffer from it. Studies show that 64% of teens blame it for poor school performance.
• Middle agers face it. Researchers say the most severe cases occur between ages thirty and forty.
• Senior citizens are afflicted by it. One study shows that the condition impacts 50 percent of the over-sixty-five population.
• Treatments involve everything from mouth guards to herbal teas to medication.*

What is it? What’s this plague?

Insomnia.

Mainly, Americans (and, maybe, a lot of the rest of the world) just aren’t getting enough rest. Think about how many commercials you see every day for sleep aids … and things that aren’t exactly sleep aids, but we use them that way, like Advil.

Back in 1910, the average American got 9 hours of sleep, now we get seven. We point to Thomas Edison, who said 15 minute catnaps were enough, but forget Albert Einstein who got 11 hours of sleep a night.

It’s not just “laying down at night” sleep, though. This week, we got a new bathtub, which proved to be a lot more work for me than I anticipated. And Ethan started playing Little League baseball. And I had a sermon, a Sunday School lesson, and a Wednesday night lesson to write, as well as the church newsletter and other “church things”. On top of those things, there’s visitation and all the other little things that “need to be done” for my job and for my house and family, and on and on.

And when I lay down, sometimes my body’s too tired to sleep and sometimes my body’s all for the sleep idea but my brain won’t shut off.
Does this sound familiar?

Sometimes I wish I were like my dog. When he’s sleepy, he lays down and goes to sleep. No thoughts, no tossing and turning, just plunk! and he’s out. And when it’s time to go for a walk or bark at the trash truck, he jumps up ready to go. Most animals are like that. They sleep when they need to and fly (or run) when they want to.

Most animals, except sheep. Sheep have trouble getting to sleep. Conditions have to be just right. They need … a shepherd.

Psalm 23:2
He lets me rest in fields of green grass and leads me to quiet pools of fresh water. (GNB)

Now, let me ask you something: who made the fields and the pools? In David’s day, there weren’t a lot of great places in Israel for the sheep. A good shepherd had to get out there and move boulders and sometimes reroute streams and plant grass and go to a lot of work to create a good place for his sheep. So, what David is saying, is that his shepherd is letting him lay down in the Lord’s finished work.

Isaiah 26:3
The man whose heart is unmoved you will keep in peace, because his hope is in you. (BBE)

I actually don’t like The Message translation of this verse. It reads, “People with their minds set on you, you keep completely whole, Steady on their feet, because they keep at it and don't quit.” I like the first 75% of it, but it’s that last part I object to because it takes the focus off of God and puts it on us and our effort. The whole point of this verse—and the one we’re looking at in Psalms—is that God is the source of all worthwhile action.

It’s not that you and I find good pastures to lay down in. It’s not that you and I can find good pools. The point is that we follow God to such places.
When was the last time I sought God for rest? When I get tired, I want to just plop down on the couch and put a favorite show on the TV. Or pick up a good book. Or maybe I’ll read my Bible. If I think about a “big rest” I think about going on a vacation to somewhere. But my vacations, as much as I like them, are sometimes less restful than regular life.

Let’s do a little experiment. Turn your scripture sheet over. What do you see on the back side there? (answer will, hopefully, be “nothing”) Now, take one of the pew pencils and put a single dot in the middle of the page. Now, what do you see on the page? The dot? One little speck of dirt on this big page of white? We let the dark spaces eclipse the light, don’t we. We’re like the disciples who—at first—missed seeing the guy walk on the water because they were so caught up in the storm.

Change your focus and relax. Focus on God and rest.

Think for a moment about the Ten Commandments. “You shall not commit adultery.” Five words. “You shall not steal.” Four words.

Exodus 20:8-11
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work; you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is within them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. (NKJV)

Ninety-six words about the importance of rest.

And look at how specific he was. Think you can take the Sabbath off but let your son run the store? He says not to let your son work, either. OK, your daughter? Nope, not her either. Not even the hired hands or the animals.

I knew a man who took this verse so seriously he wouldn’t eat out on Sunday because he didn’t want to be the cause of someone else having to work that day. (He didn’t mind if his wife cooked his lunch, though.)

If the world didn’t crash when God rested, it won’t crash when you do, either. It’s not your job to run the world, or mine, either.

God didn’t give us bodies that needed rest just because he felt like it. A body that needs rest is a blessing because it’s a reminder to turn things over to God. To let him be the shepherd.

Ephesians 2:8
For it is by God's grace that you have been saved through faith. It is not the result of your own efforts, but God's gift, so that no one can boast about it. (GNB)

“In a world rocky with human failure, there is a land lush with divine mercy. Your Shepherd invites you there. He wants you to lie down. Nestle deeply until you are hidden, buried, in the tall shoots of his love, and there you will find rest.” --Max Lucado

What do I DO with this?

Go to God and seek his rest. It’s that simple (and that hard, as the world and our own training pulls us to be active when inaction’s called for).

* Robert Sullivan, "Sleepless in America", LIFE, February 1998, 56-66.

Comments? Email me at martha917@yahoo.com