Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

How long will you lie there, you sluggard?
    When will you get up from your sleep?
A little sleep, a little slumber,
    a little folding of the hands to rest—
and poverty will come on you like a thief
    and scarcity like an armed man.

• Proverbs 6:9-11

Returning the third time, he said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Enough! The hour has come. Look, the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners. Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!”

• Mark 14:41-42

I had several days of very poor sleep in a row.  It is odd, I had several great days of sleep just before that, but that is not the point.  I finally had a day when the alarm was not set.

I awoke at 4:00am and doctored the things that hurt.  I went back to bed, wondering if I could sleep any more at all.

Then the next thing that I remember is that I awoke well after the sun arose to an earworm of Revelation Song.

I thought that maybe, just maybe, I had now had enough sleep.  But then, I heard Winnie the Pooh (Sterling Holloway) say one of his catch phrases.

The next thing I knew, it was about an hour later, and wouldn’t you know it!!  The same thing happened again.  My best and deepest sleep, according to my watch, was between about 8:30am and 9:30am.

God commands us to remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy.  To me, that is often on Mondays.  My wife has kidney dialysis Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.  Teaching Sunday school is on Sunday morning.  All it takes is to have a bad night sleep on Thursday night / Friday morning and I have strung several interrupted sleep nights in a row.  Monday becomes that day of rest.

Sure, I might do some of my best writing on Mondays, probably because I got my best sleep on Sunday night, but really after 4:00am (give or take an hour or so) on Monday morning. Fresh pain killing balm on the things that hurt, an adjustment of the CPAP mask to ensure a good seal, a little fluffing of the pillow, and then …

We need our rest, but once we get the rest we need, there is work to do.  My wife shakes her head when I call my writing “work”, but when you are doing the work God has called you to do, work is the most enjoyable thing on earth to do. It may be the same thing in Heaven.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.