January 18
Sleeplessness
We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed and broken. We are perplexed, but we don’t give up and quit.
2 Corinthians 4:7 (NLT)
I lie in bed listening to that quiet, library-like hum in my ears. It’s 3 a.m., 3:30, 4. The sheets rustle as my wife rolls over. Her gentle breathing punctuates the stillness and my mind races as it has for the last hour. I throw off the too warm quilt. It smothers me like everything else—church, family, business. My minor problems consume me. So much to do, so much to take care of, and so little time!
I consider my work at church and realize 15 hours a week has turned in to what seems like 50. Seven ministries and a host of new activities, conferences, meetings, groups and programs are about to launch. People need to be recruited, summer schedules set and programs stood up. I cannot not act. I must get busy. We are launching a new campaign to build healthy families, but my own family needs attention.
Some might call it minor. I don’t. Two of my three boys are experiencing behavioral issues. It’s a subtle thing, yet lack of attention could affect their character in negative ways. I know I have to do something!
Then I think of my parents in assisted living—my dad’s need for care and my mom’s need for relief from the burden of care giving. Something has to happen! Then I remember their income tax still needs to be done … by me! I haven’t even started which, reminds me, I better start our tax return as well.
Then there’s the family business. It won’t go away. Calls from East Coast real estate agents at 6 a.m. Ongoing talks with three different lawyers on a myriad of issues. Faxes, phone calls and emails. Offers, counteroffers; deals and notaries; express mail and bank runs—the barrage seems endless.
Then there’s my own desire to blog and finish my writing course—only 10 lessons to complete in the next 28 days! Man, oh man!
On and on it goes until it finally drives me out of bed at 5 a.m., but all is not lost. I smile an unseen smile as I quietly launch into a new day. In the dark, I slip on some socks and a shirt and leave my wife in slumbering bliss. Later, she’ll ask me why I think I need to get up so early and spend so much time praying. I already know the answer: I don’t want to be crushed or broken, and I don’t want to quit. So, I hit my knees and by the time the sun rises I know God has not abandoned me.
I have made a decision, the most important decision of my life. I want to live—in spite of problems, issues and setbacks, I want to live—for Christ! I want to live for Christ, and I hope you do too!
Father, thank You for schedules, for issues and problems and for a chance to trust You. Help us, I pray. Amen.
Sleeplessness
We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed and broken. We are perplexed, but we don’t give up and quit.
2 Corinthians 4:7 (NLT)
I lie in bed listening to that quiet, library-like hum in my ears. It’s 3 a.m., 3:30, 4. The sheets rustle as my wife rolls over. Her gentle breathing punctuates the stillness and my mind races as it has for the last hour. I throw off the too warm quilt. It smothers me like everything else—church, family, business. My minor problems consume me. So much to do, so much to take care of, and so little time!
I consider my work at church and realize 15 hours a week has turned in to what seems like 50. Seven ministries and a host of new activities, conferences, meetings, groups and programs are about to launch. People need to be recruited, summer schedules set and programs stood up. I cannot not act. I must get busy. We are launching a new campaign to build healthy families, but my own family needs attention.
Some might call it minor. I don’t. Two of my three boys are experiencing behavioral issues. It’s a subtle thing, yet lack of attention could affect their character in negative ways. I know I have to do something!
Then I think of my parents in assisted living—my dad’s need for care and my mom’s need for relief from the burden of care giving. Something has to happen! Then I remember their income tax still needs to be done … by me! I haven’t even started which, reminds me, I better start our tax return as well.
Then there’s the family business. It won’t go away. Calls from East Coast real estate agents at 6 a.m. Ongoing talks with three different lawyers on a myriad of issues. Faxes, phone calls and emails. Offers, counteroffers; deals and notaries; express mail and bank runs—the barrage seems endless.
Then there’s my own desire to blog and finish my writing course—only 10 lessons to complete in the next 28 days! Man, oh man!
On and on it goes until it finally drives me out of bed at 5 a.m., but all is not lost. I smile an unseen smile as I quietly launch into a new day. In the dark, I slip on some socks and a shirt and leave my wife in slumbering bliss. Later, she’ll ask me why I think I need to get up so early and spend so much time praying. I already know the answer: I don’t want to be crushed or broken, and I don’t want to quit. So, I hit my knees and by the time the sun rises I know God has not abandoned me.
I have made a decision, the most important decision of my life. I want to live—in spite of problems, issues and setbacks, I want to live—for Christ! I want to live for Christ, and I hope you do too!
Father, thank You for schedules, for issues and problems and for a chance to trust You. Help us, I pray. Amen.
posted by Craig Soderquist at 10:16 AM
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