One of the things that I really do well man, is sleep. You could practically say that I excel at it. I can sleep like nobody's business, and I can virtually sleep anytime, anywhere, anyhow, and anyway I feel like it... I can sleep in the sun or with a lot of noise; and I'm pretty sure that there's even been a few instances in which I've just barely fallen asleep while standing up on a crowded bus!
Sleep is cool because it's refreshing and relaxing. And even though there are many times when I'm speaking or hanging out in public that I don't act like an introvert, I definitely am, and being with people can at times be so exhausting that the only real remedy for it is to take a nice, quick, rejuvenating, napperoo.
Beauty sleep is what some people call it, and even though I don't think it makes me very beautiful by any means, I do think it helps in keeping the rest of the world around me pretty beautiful because when I'm tired boy, it's like nothing has any beauty to it whatsoever... nothing except a soft warm bed.
There's this kid that I'm discipling, and his name is Juanes, and no joke - where this guy gets all his energy from I have no clue, but he's got tons of it. He's constantly WhatsApping me so we can go hang out or play basketball, or watch basketball, or talk about basketball, or eat basketballs (just kidding), or use basketball as a means of connecting with people and sharing the gospel with them etc... so yeah, I mean he's a wonderful guy to have around for sure, and I really appreciate his friendship a lot, but it's like man alive, sometimes I just wish he would chill out haha....It's actually kind of funny because we've come to a point now where he kind of knows that whenever I'm needing some alone time, I tell him that I'm going to go read a bit, and basically that's just become code for: "I'm going to go sleep for a while right now, so please just find something else to do, okay?"
Well, he goes ahead and does that, and he goes ahead and let's me fall asleep, he does. But of course, not without at least taking a couple selfies with me snoozing there in the background.
...So that's funny, but anyway, what I really want to get at with this entry, is my theological convictions regarding sleep, and how really, sleep is a wonderful gift from God that should be enjoyed fully.
Granted, Proverbs 6:10-11 says, "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," so I'm not suggesting we just sleep our whole way through life and expect everything to come to us without the slightest bit of effort; but I do think that when we do what we do, and we do it for the glory of God, and we do it to the best of our ability... well, at the end of the day when everything is said and done, and we gave it our best shot... the best we can do is sleep, and just rest in him who rested himself after he created the whole universe (Hebrews 4:9-11).
In fact, Hebrews 4:10 says, "for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his."
See, Christianity at it's most basic and truly defined essence, is a life of faith. A life of faith that rests completely and unequivocally on Christ's work on the cross for us; both regarding our salvation (Ephesians 2:8-9), as well as our will and our working for his good pleasure (Philippians 2:13)...
Absolutely everything we are in Christ, and everything we do in him, is entirely by grace through faith, and not by works so that no one can boast.
And see, that's really comforting for me because how in the whole world am I supposed to save anyone from hell?
I can't, and yet somehow as a missionary I'm supposed to do that and start churches and stuff.
...In my last blog entry I talked about the 3 essential things that we need in any type of ministry for us to be effective as being: 1. a love for God and a love for people (Mark 12:30-31), 2. the power of the Holy Spirit working in and through us to be his witnesses (Acts 1:8), and 3. people to interact with and share the gospel to (Romans 10:14).
So what is the gospel?
Well, the gospel is the good news that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom the apostle Paul and I are the worst (1 Timothy 1:15).
Where do we find that gospel?
We find it in the Word of God, and so that's why absolutely everything I preach on has to come directly from the Bible... I can't just come up with cleverly devised myths and eloquently try to convince anyone I can through interesting philosophical arguments that my reasoning is superior... all I can do is point to the living and active Word of God that is sharper than any double edged sword and is the only thing in the whole world that can truly judge and convict us of our thoughts and attitudes of heart and turn us back to the living God (See 1 Peter 1:16-21 and Hebrews 4:12).
I say this, and I do it, and in the middle of it all I sleep.
I sleep, because I know salvation rests in the message of Christ alone, and that this Message is always superior to the messenger (me).
To prove this, just look at the parable of The Growing Seed in Mark 4:26-29...
Jesus said that the Kingdom of God is like a man who scatters seed on the ground; and night and day, whether this guy sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how...
Before this parable, in the Parable of the Sower, it is clear that "the seed" represents the Word... and what I love about the meaning of the Parable of The Growing Seed is that as long as we just sow the Word of God in people's lives... someway, somehow, this Word miraculously produces fruit without us even trying. We can sleep all we want, because the promise remains that at the end of the day when the Word has been sown, that Word that comes out of the mouth of God will certainly not return to him empty, but will accomplish what God desires, and it will achieve the purpose for which he sent it (Isaiah 55:11).
And that's really awesome, because it just goes to show that in the middle of sharing the Word to others, there's always ample room for us to take our fair share of naps and let the Holy Spirit do his work in the lives of those who are hearing God's Word.
...And you know all that stuff about snoozing and loosing?... well, in the sense that I've just been talking about - aaaaactually, that's complete nonsense because with God the truth is that we win.
