Sleepless Nights

Paul had sleepless nights. I wonder how many. I wonder what the reasons were. What kept Paul awake at night? What keeps so many of my dear, Godly friends, awake into the wee hours of the night?

Tonight, I lie awake because I was distinctly reminded through an event in a friend's life, that there are no guarantees in life. We hear this all the time.

But it's funny how a simple event can turn your life around within a second. For my friend, it did, and in a less significant manner, it was so for me too.

Was it coincidence that we studied Psalm 90 this morning during our staff meeting devotions? "Teach us to number our days". Moses wasn't just speaking of counting out how many days till we expect to pass on to eternity. He was speaking of the judgment of God. How quickly it can come about and flip your life upside down. All the plans you made cast aside in His fury. He is the One in charge, yet how easily we forget.

A well-studied Biblical scholar, and man of God whom I have been blessed to know these past years of my life in California, has espoused the idea that the difficulty we all face in this life is a direct result of God trying to get our attention, trying to draw us to look to Him for deliverance. It's all over the Bible, really. The Old Testament carries out this idea fully. God's covenant with the Israelites was that if they obeyed His commands, He would bless them. If they do not, He would punish them through famine, drought, wars and eventually exile if they didn't shape up. The Minor Prophets tell the story - God constantly crying out to His people to repent, turn back to Him, and He would relieve their suffering.

What is it for us in the New Testament age? I think it still rings true. Perhaps its not so obviously spelled out in the New Testament, but our lives tell the tale quite accurately. We aren't naturally inclined to look heavenward unless we reach our wits end, unless we feel the need. Do you think God enjoys causing His people to suffer? NO! But how else is He going to get our attention? It's out of love that He disciplines us. Perhaps we didn't even do anything to deserve the discipline. Perhaps we've been faithful to Him. Yet ease in our life causes us to forget.

Post it on your doorways, He told the Israelites, so that when you walk out of your house to head off to the fields to work, you don't forget Who it is that gave you the ability to walk, to move your arms and legs, to speak, to think, to breathe. In a second, when you least expect it, He could withdraw your breath and you would be no more.

Don't be so morose, you say. But maybe taking life a little more serious might be good for some of us. If we are as apt to forget as I fear we are, maybe we ought to consider Moses's wise counsel: number your days. Don't forget that you are not the one in charge of your life. Someone much greater, wiser, kinder, gentler, firmer, and loving is. And He doesn't want you to forget that.