Tossing and Turning

You’ve kept track of my every toss and turn through the sleepless nights, each tear entered in your ledger, each ache written in your book. (Psalm 56:8)

As I grow a bit older each year, I notice new 'aches and pains' that weren't there a few years back. I hear the creak and crackle of the joints. I don't sleep all the way through the night anymore and find I toss and turn a bit too much at times. It is good to know God isn't unaware of these changes - in fact, he is tracking them probably more than we are!

Sleepless nights aren't very frequent for me. In fact, I usually find it easy to get to sleep - it is falling back to sleep after I have awakened in the wee hours of the morning that is harder. I have noticed it is often in these times of being awake and 'tossing about' a bit that God speaks to me. He not only shows me things I need to address in my life, but it is amazing how he will spark a creative idea or help me 'fix' a problem I have been having with something I wanted to create.

Why is it that those quieter moments of the night are the times he speaks the loudest? The answer is in the first part of that question - we are finally quiet, and we are more apt to listen! Try as we might in our 'quiet time' with him each day, it is harder to get our minds to 'quiet down'. In the wee hours of the night when we are awakened and 'sleepless', it is dark, there are no 'extra distractions' to lure us away, and we find our minds are a bit less 'cluttered' with all the issues of the day.

I learned quite some time back to ask God why I was awake. It isn't a complaint I throw his way, but rather a simple request to see if there is a particular something he needs me to pay attention to in those quiet hours. It might be something about how I have been behaving, what I have been doing, or even something totally unrelated to me at all. He sometimes just asks me to pray - for you, for my family, the nation, or someone who I don't even know, but who needs prayers lifted on their behalf. 

It may not be prayer that is needed - it could be he wants to show you a solution that has previously eluded your thoughts because of all the chaos of the moment. I find God helps me come up with creative solutions, ideas for how to proceed with a project, and even gives me new ideas I had never considered. How about you? Have you noticed similar things happening in those 'awake' moments in the night? Maybe these are the moments that help us grow the most. Just sayin!