It’s 3AM and You Can’t Sleep…
Psalm 77:1-2, 11-20
Gettysburg Presbyterian Church
Rev. Lou Nyiri
July 8, 2007

I have a good friend and trusted colleague from Seminary who told me a great story about an internship he did between his first and second year of Seminary.  He originally thought he wanted to serve as a military Chaplain serving the Marine Corps so he was stationed the summer between his beginning two years of Seminary at a Marine boot camp.  He told me about his first time leading Sunday Chapel for the Marines and the words of advice his superior officer gave him prior to leading that worship service. 

The Chaplain told him, “Remember, during basic training, sleep is also a gift of the Spirit….  Don’t be offended if the soldiers who come to worship fall asleep during the service.  And by all means, whatever you do, don’t wake them up until the service is over.  This is the one place their drill instructor cannot make them do push ups or anything else.  For this one hour they have breathing room AND sleeping room if needed to be recharged for the remaining journey ahead known as boot camp.  They get a one hour break from their drill instructor to be fed by their God and that feeding comes in many different forms.”

Well, let me say two things about that story, first, this is not boot camp so if you fall asleep, I will wake you up if your neighbor doesn’t beat me to it.  Second, if you do fall asleep, maybe you are among the fifty-eight percent of people who are not sleeping very well at night.  At least that is what the National Sleep Foundation has discovered.  Fifty-eight percent of adults have symptoms of insomnia at least a few nights a week.

If this number includes you, you might consider checking out the web site titled – “Insomnia?  41 Simple Tips to Help You Get to Sleep.”  The web site says this of the tips,
“They're all designed to help you deal with the tension, stress and anxiety that lead to insomnia, so that you can enjoy a good night's sleep.  Not every one of these insomnia techniques alone will get you to sleep, but a few of them at least should prove successful.  Needless to say, there's no guarantee, and no attempt to provide medical advice.  With that caveat out of the way, we can only wish you good luck.  And a good night's sleep.”
The site includes the standard suggestions, such as:  drinking warm milk or herb tea; avoiding caffeine, alcohol or tobacco; and getting some physical exercise during the day.
The site also offers the age old adage of counting sheep, though it specifies it’s never worked for the authors of the site.
The authors also suggest a few unusual tips, such as: 

• sleeping with your head facing north which allows your body to align with the magnetic field of the planet;
• toe wiggling which suggests your feet are a kind of master control panel for the rest of your body and wiggling your toes of both feet at the same time up and down 12 times in order to stimulate and relax your body;
• imagining it’s time to get up – imaging as realistically as you can that you have to put your bare feet on a cold floor; stumble into the bathroom; take a cold shower; brush your teeth; get dressed quietly so as not to awaken anyone else, in fact the more unpleasantly you imagine the act of waking up the more you’ll want to stay in bed and keep sleeping, thus tricking your mind into becoming sleepy and the rest of you will follow.
• Picturing something boring – and don’t go where I know your mind is going right now because it isn’t always the sermon that’s boring, but you get the picture, stuff like watching grass grow or watching paint dry on a picket fence.

Insomnia affects over one-half of us.  We toss and turn but cannot find sleep.  We ruminate, cogitate and marinate everything going on in our lives until sleep finally does overtake us and usually sleep comes about one to two hours before we need to get up anyway.  For those who find sleep fleeting, the words of the rock group Bare Naked Ladies (they’re Canadian) single “Who Needs Sleep?” ring true,
“Now I lay me down to sleep. / I just get tangled in the sheets. / I swim in sweat three inches deep. / I just lay back and claim defeat… / Lids down, I count sheep. / I count heartbeats. / The only thing that counts is that I won’t sleep. / Another sleepless night’s begun…”
The previously mentioned web site suggests that if insomnia is a recurring theme in your night time ritual then see your doctor as sometimes it is the symptom of a physical disorder.  Although for most of us it's the result of tension, stress and anxiety -- and of course the more anxious we get about our insomnia, the worse it gets.  If your doctor pronounces you a "healthy" insomniac, he might suggest some of the techniques provided.  Or she might prescribe drugs to help you get to sleep.  The authors of the web site suggest you try all their methods first, and use drugs only as a last resort.  The choice of course is yours.  But between you and me though, if I saw that Lunesta butterfly in my room at night I wouldn’t be sleeping I’d be wide awake with paranoia.
Sleeplessness can cause our minds to do funny things.  If you’ve ever spent time unable to sleep at night you know what we’re talking about.  You lie in the dark.  The house is quiet.  If you share a bed, you notice how your partner is sleeping like a log, peaceful as ever.  You on the other hand, toss and turn, you fluff your pillow, try to lie still, try to relax, try to wake up your partner so you won’t be alone in your sleeplessness.  You even try not to think though no matter what you do, you cannot fall asleep.

And then your mind takes off as though there were a small tape recorder in your head that wont’ shut off.  The wheel inside your brain begins spinning like a hamster hopped up on espresso was using it for his treadmill.  And this din of noise goes on and on in your head obsessing about some problem worrying you.  And it’s especially irritating if you have already come to a conclusion about how you would handle it the next day.  You may have even decided to leave the matter in God’s capable hands.  Yet there you are, lying in bed, compulsively turning the problem over and over in your mind as if you trust neither God nor yourself to work things out.

You have come to the same realization as our Psalmist this morning – that in the hollow hours of sleeplessness, problems we might handle well enough in broad daylight when well rested, have a way of overwhelming us, even impressing us with a sense of hopelessness.

Hear these words from Psalm 77, sandwiched in between our reading this morning,
“You keep my eyelids from closing; I am so troubled that I cannot speak.  I conside the days of old, and remember the years of long ago.  I commune with my heart in the night; I meditate and search my spirit:  ‘Will the Lord spurn for ever, and never again be favourable?  Has his steadfast love ceased for ever?  Are his promises at an end for all time?  Has God forgotten to be gracious?  Has he in anger shut up his compassion?’  And I say, ‘It is my grief that the right hand of the Most High has changed.’”  (Psalm 77:4-10)
One moment the Psalmist speaks of not being able to sleep.  The next, he is entertaining memories of things long past as they flood in on him.  Then he concludes God has abandoned him and that God’s steadfast love has ceased forever!  Whew!

But when our minds will not shut off and sleep evades us, sometimes extreme conclusions like this can gain ground.
Of course we are not always kept awake by worrisome things, sometimes we just simply cannot sleep.  We don’t know why, we just know sleep evades us.  And as we toss and turn those dark hours become ready made playgrounds for panic and anxiety to play in our minds.  We begin to entertain impossible possibilities the longer we’re awake.  In the bright light of day they would not survive though in the lonely darkness, they seem to make terrible sense.

Our inability to fall asleep can have many causes.  And when it’s just the occasional sleepless night some of those 41 Simple Tips to Help You Get to Sleep might help.  The web site offers some good advice though, if in say a month’s time you find yourself not sleeping at night more often than you find yourself sleeping, consult your doctor.  But the next time you find yourself lying awake at night and for our purposes this morning, I want to suggest that we might consult the other physician in our life – The Great Physician – the Lord.  Maybe God is trying to get our attention or at the very least maybe God can simply use that sleepless time to help us refocus on something happening in our lives.

Sometimes throughout the whirlwind of our days as we try to hold it all together, our spiritual lives get out of whack.  We neglect to nourish our souls and God may be able to use the sleepless hours of our night to call to us so that we might hear God’s still small voice in our lives.  And if we can embrace this possibility, maybe we can compose songs of response to God. 

Keeping in mind that the Psalms are all songs, here are some that might have been composed on sleepless nights:

• Psalm 56 – the author is thinking in the night time hours about the enemies arrayed against him and acknowledges his insomnia, saying,  “You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle.  Are they not in your record?”  “…in God I trust; I am not afraid.  What can a mere mortal do to me?”  “for you have delivered my sould from death, and my feet from falling, so that I may walk before God in the light of life.”  (56:8, 11, 13)
• Psalm 63 – can be understood as a song in the night to God as well.  The author sings, “My soul is satisfied as with a rich feast, and my mouth praises you with joyful lips when I think of you on my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night; for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I sing for joy.  My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.”  (63:5-8)
• In today’s reading, Psalm 77 – after the psalmist arrived at his groundless conclusion that God’s love had forever ceased, he found peace again as began thinking about God’s might acts in the past.  He quit worrying about falling asleep and sang out, “I will call to mind the deeds of the LORD; I will remember your wonders of old.  I will meditate on all your work, and muse on your mighty deeds.  Your way, O God, is holy.  What god is so great as our God?  you are the God who works wonders; you have displayed your might among the peoples.  (77:11-14)

I’m guessing soon thereafter the author of Psalm 77 fell asleep.

Charles Colson knows how God can use insomnia to get our attention.  Colson had been an attorney in the White House during the Nixon administration, who was sentenced prison because of his involvement in the Watergate cover up.  In the midst of it all he committed his life to serving Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and lived a devout Christian life.  He tells the story of how after being paroled from prison, he had difficulty falling asleep in his comfortable bed.  One night after he finally fell asleep, he dreamed he was back in Maxwell Prison in Alabama.  The dream startled him awake.

In the dark, he lay there, trying to go back to sleep, but sleep would not come and his mind returned to the prison.  He remembered a conversation he had shortly before his release with an inmate named Archie.  Archie said, “You’ll be out of here soon.  What are you going to do for us?”

Colson responded, “I’ll help in some way.  I’ll never forget the stinking place or you guys.”

Archie retorted, “They all say that.  I’ve seen big shots come and go.  They all say the same thing.  Then they get out and forget us fast.  Ain’t nobody cares about us.  Nobody.”

Colson insisted he would remember them and Archie said, “Bull.”

As it turned out, Colson found a way – as a result of this nighttime memory – to keep his word.  He founded Prison Fellowship ministry, which has become a great spiritual help to thousands of inmates.

It seems as though this nighttime memory was God’s way of calling for Colson’s attention.

Does this mean every time you can’t sleep God is trying to get your attention?  No.  But think of it this way, God is like a wakeful friend who has a brainstorm at 3AM and calls you right then and there because he can’t wait to tell you how you can be involved too.  Of maybe God is like a friend who can’t sleep and wants some company so he invites you to share in his insomnia.  As Psalm 121 says, God is himself a chronic insomniac, “He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber.  He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.”  (121:3,4)

Now none of this is a guarantee that our sleep will improve. 
For prayer and spiritual awareness are not intended to be used as warm milk to help us sleep better.   Yet, when we cannot sleep, it is good to know that we have a God who is always there willing to share all our moments with us.  And we could at least be open to the possibility that God can find us in our sleepless spots and work in and through those moments to help shape our daily lives in relationship and alignment wit His will.

The next time you lie in bed at night unable to sleep, remember the words of Samuel who said in his sleepless night, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.”  (1 Samuel 3:10)
You may or may not fall asleep more easily, though one thing is certain, your spirit could gain the refreshment of being consciously in the presence of our wide-awake God.  Amen.

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