Dream Chaser

Sleep really is a blessing.  When you have a family, work and other responsibilities each day, getting enough sleep is not just about the luxury of staying snuggled up in your bed on a cold morning.  Getting a good night’s rest is about your health.  Studies show that lack of sleep can result in impaired judgement, los s of sex drive, aging skin, heart disease, diabetes as well as a host of other health woes.  Moreover, these and other effects of inadequate sleep can affect your ability to be at your best in anything you do.  So, when I have trouble sleeping twice in one week, I start to ask myself about the reason for waking up in the middle of the night and not being able to get back to sleep.

Over the years I’ve noted dreams being one culprit for waking me at odd hours in the night.  A few years ago and even more recently I’ve come across some folks that firmly believe in dream interpretation.  As someone that suffered from anxiety (and quite frankly, an active imagination), using those tools to try and explain my dreams put me in a tough spot.  You see, the dreams and their interpretations weren’t always in line with God’s word.  In a way, dream interpretation incited new fears in me and even led me to follow those fears to even darker and more unstable places.  What’s worse is it led me away from God, led me to trusting in myself and outside resources, when what I should have done was consulted Him from the start.  You see, there is no perfect truth outside of God’s word.  That’s it, it’s that simple.  (Jeremiah 23:9-28)

Right now I’m working on just five hours of sleep, a little headache and an empty stomach.  My first intuition this morning was to access what ails me and self-diagnose what they could mean, but decided to talk to my Dad in heaven first.  (He’s the best counselor and there’s never a wait!)  His word really is all the nourishment I needed.  In fact, maybe I’ll take a nap this afternoon – just for luxury!