Gospel Hope for the Sleep Deprived
Our son is teething. Our sweet, happy, always laughing baby boy is completely miserable and isn’t afraid to let us know it. We’re able to manage his discomfort during the day with some of his favorite toys or a cold carrot for him to gnaw on. But nights are a different story.
While Micah has never been a stellar sleeper, we had started to see a glimmer of hope. He was sleeping for longer stretches and my husband and I were beginning to feel human again, making our way out of the newborn fog.
Now our evenings are predictably unpredictable. We know he’s going to wake up multiple times but is he going to go back to sleep easily? Who knows! Will he wake up one time or three times? Your guess is as good as mine! Will he sleep in until 7 or will he decide 5:45 is the time to start his day? Honestly, no clue.
Needless to say, we are exhausted. Between the sleepless nights and days spent chasing a high-energy threenager around, my tank is, as they say, pretty empty.
You may be in the same boat as I am - in the throes of life with littles and all the tiring aspects of it. Or you may have a demanding job that doesn’t let up enough for you to enjoy rest. Chronic insomnia that steals sleep every night. Stress or grief or worry keeping you from a peaceful evening. So many of us are just TIRED.
I’m sure I’m not alone when I say that I’m not really at my best when I’m sleep deprived. My fuse is short, my patience is thin, and my selfish desires take the reins of my actions and words.
And that’s fine, right? I have a valid excuse, don’t I? It’s ok for me to be short with my kids and others around me when I haven’t gotten a good night’s sleep in 3 years, isn’t it?
As much as my sinful heart wants to say ‘Heck Yes!”…the gospel gives us a better way to live, even when we’re sleep deprived.
There is a jaw-dropping passage of Scripture that speaks so directly to these kinds of circumstances. However, we often pass over it because it’s so familiar. We likely own coffee mugs or t-shirts that have parts of the passage printed in trending fonts and colors, but do we truly grasp the magnitude of what it says?
“So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” 2 Corinthians 12:7-10
Paul knew weaknesses that are foreign to me. He was put in jail for his faith, survived a shipwreck, and knew the pangs of hunger. In this passage, he is boasting about his weakness, and yet we consider him one of the strongest members of our faith! So why do we associate strength with someone who was so open about his struggles?
Because Paul glorified God in his weaknesses.
He didn’t try to overcome them by his own strength. He didn’t try to brush them off like they weren’t as hard as they sounded. He didn’t use them as an excuse to grumble and complain and forsake his calling.
He knew the secret to being content - God was the source of his strength (Philippians 4:12-13).
Culture today, especially mom culture as seen on social media, would tell you that self-care is the source of your strength. That if you just get consistent sleep and find enough time for yourself, you’ll have what you need to be the perfect mom.
It sounds nice, and there’s nothing wrong with some quality alone time. But when we start to see it as the source of our strength, we are destined to fail. It will never be enough. There will never be enough sleep. There will never be enough alone time. There will never be enough baths, books, or coffee dates that will give us the strength we long to see in place of our weakness. But when we accept that the source of our strength is God himself, we have everything we need to glorify him and reflect him to the world despite our weakness. Only God and his gospel are sufficient to sustain us.
Here is my proposition for myself and anyone else who feels weary and tired - what if we stop taking our cues from the cultural norms and instead be encouraged to handle our weakness like we see in the example of Paul? What if we honestly acknowledged our weaknesses and reached out to our brothers and sisters in our local church for support in our trying seasons? What if, by God’s grace, these sleep deprived days were not marked by complaining, selfishness, and a woe-is-me attitude and instead held an aroma of joy, peace, patience and love?
Do we need sleep? Yes. Do I function better when I get consistent sleep? 100%. Is rest a good thing? Without a doubt!
But some seasons just don’t allow for it. I don’t want this time with my small children to be remembered as the time I was totally burned out, easily provoked to anger and selfishly seeking ‘me time’ above all else. I would much rather look back on this time and praise God for his grace that sustained me and his faithfulness to help me reflect his character, by no merit of my own.
Let me leave you with some more encouragement he has given us:
“Cast your burden on the Lord,
and he will sustain you;
he will never permit
the righteous to be moved.” Psalm 55:22“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30
“And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” Galatians 6:9
Our weaknesses, whatever they look like, are a gift. They remind us of our need for God and prove he is faithful to walk with us through everything. So take a deep breath, take a nap if you can, and rest in the grace of our God.
