Sit. Stay. Rest.

The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul. (Psalm 23:1-3a)

Ok, so we all know this psalm, right? Well, something that just struck me literally this morning, is that word "makes." It doesn't say "God stands with us while we choose the wise course of making sure we get enough sleep." No, it says "He makes me lie down."

Dude.

If you take this from a realistic Shepherd/Sheep standpoint, it makes sense, right? Sheep are dumb. They don't even know when or where to rest, apparently. (I rather wonder if they would just eat until they passed out otherwise.)

Good thing we're not like those sheep, right? You know, we're not at all workaholics or anything.

Yeah.

Sometimes I think it's just busy-ness that keeps us going. That and, in my case, the desire to have my own time. I will come home from an evening and most often will go straight to the computer so I can have some "me time." Which would be fine except when it results in massive amounts of under-sleep. Because then when I'm not rested, I'm not good for anything.

But when I listen to God's prompting, I will sometimes come home and actually go straight to bed. Maybe I'll read a book for a while, but I'll actually be asleep before midnight. And that's really an important thing!! God wants us to rest. We were designed to rest. You can generally see when people haven't been getting enough sleep--they look horrible!

But we tend to push and push and push ourselves, and often it is rest that goes by the wayside. So God has to make us lie down, like the dumb sheep that we are.

So I have decided to make rest more of a priority. Not sloth or lazyness, but real rest. Do what needs doing, and do it in a timely manner, so I can go to bed on time, so that I will have the energy I need for the next day. Let it be so, Lord God.