PERSPECTIVE 10 JUNE 2025 www.goodnewsfl.org Good News • South Florida Edition Sleep is an interesting behavior we all experience. We are hard wired to need it. Babies sleep a lot, almost as much as cats. Children need to sleep a lot but fight it because they don’t want to miss life. Adults, on the other hand, are all over the map. They say the average adult sleeps (or at least needs to sleep) between 7-9 hours a day, in essence, one third of our lives dedicated to sleeping. I know some people who seem to sleep a lot — they consider it a hobby — and others who hardly sleep; they consider this a badge of honor. Increasingly so, scientists who study sleep, brain activity and other health indicators regularly toute the benefits of sleep, claiming that what can be perceived as “wasting time” is actually prolonging our lives and increasing our capacity. Like I said, sleep is an interesting behavior we all experience. I’ve been thinking about sleep a little bit lately. Perhaps it’s because the summer season invites a different pace in life, and one may encounter the occasional summer afternoon nap. Perhaps it’s because I may be tired and simply desire more of it, or perhaps it’s because it allows my mind to rest, sometimes. Sleep tends to stir up a part of my brain that seems to get ignored most of the day, like a middle child, giving it some well-deserved stage time... finally. When I sleep, I have some of the most interesting conversations with the most interesting people in the most fascinating places. I have solved problems in my sleep. I have found lost items in my sleep. I have been poked to pray for people in my sleep, and frankly, I have also traveled through time, in my sleep (however, I think that had more to do with my dinner). Asleep in the boat I was recently made aware of two interesting and familiar scenes in the Bible where Jesus and His interns (my name for the disciples) addressed sleep. The first scene, popular and often painted, is a story familiar to many of us. Jesus had asked the interns to go to the other side of the lake, by boat, after a long day of work. Jesus, exhausted, falls asleep in the stern of the boat. The “threehour” tour encounters a massive storm and Gilligan wakes up Jesus, oops, (different story, I must be sleeping again), I mean the interns wake up Jesus with fright written all over their faces and heard in their voices. The interns are literally fearing for their lives. They assume that Jesus is more effective when He is awake than when He is asleep and can help rescue them from this scene. However, if Jesus remains asleep, they believe they are all going to die, including Jesus (so the interns thought). Imagine the story of Jesus ending with the simple note of, “and then he died at sea”… sort of a letdown. Jesus awakes from His deep sleep and does what Jesus does… He fixes the problem, but then He addresses the bigger problem… a lack of faith paralyzed by fear. Hmmm, that lesson continues to ring true for me today. Asleep in the garden The second story is found on the last night of Jesus’s life, before He is brutally crucified. Jesus is in a garden, after a full meal with his interns, a place they would often go and spend time together… a place of rest and refreshment. However, this evening is different, and Jesus seeks some time alone where He has intense conversations with His Father… conversations that place the destiny of mankind in the crosshairs of extinction. The Bible states that the conversations He was having alone with His Father were so intense that blood was actually dripping from His forehead (most believe that the capillaries in his forehead burst from that intensity). Jesus had asked His interns to stay close by, stay awake and be available as He sought this momentary solitude. However, several times He would take a break and come over, perhaps simply to get some encouragement, and find them asleep. He too would wake them with a simple request: Please remain awake because its important. They could not. Sleep awaited them as soon as He would disappear. Eventually, He simply let them sleep until they were awakened by the horrific noise of the arresting mob. Read the rest of the story if you are unfamiliar with it... it ends well, actually. Sleep is something that is so natural to me. My body needs it. It’s part of how God created me. However, is it possible for me to be awake physically, but asleep in other ways, including spiritually? Perhaps these two scenes where we encounter the beautiful expression of Jesus the man and Jesus the Divine, tell us something about ourselves. Why does Jesus sleep and his interns can’t in a life threating storm? Why does Jesus stay awake in a quiet and peaceful garden and his interns naturally take advantage of the scene to sleep? Why does Jesus rebuke them both times… one time for not sleeping and the other for sleeping? Both times, the interns, were simply being very human… like me, I would have done the same. Perhaps it’s simple… and thought provoking… Jesus is suggesting that we learn to sleep when He sleeps, and we learn to stay awake when He is awake. The storms of life tend to keep us awake with anxiety, worry and the illusion that we can fix it; however, Jesus is at peace. There is a lesson there. Sometimes the storms we see are much less terrifying than the ones we can’t see, and that’s when we need to be awake. I will continue to ponder and pray about this. I want to see life through the eyes of Jesus, through His perspective so that I can learn to sleep when He says it’s time to sleep and stay awake when He says it time to stay awake. The only way I can do that is to stay close to Him. Therefore, perhaps this summer we humbly surrender our rhythms to His. Stephan N. Tchividjian is the CEO and co-founder of the National Christian Foundation South Florida. Visit southflorida.ncfgiving.com to learn more. Sleep - Stephan Tchividjian - CEO and Co-Founder, National Christian Foundation South Florida
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjE2MjU=