Sunday Sleep

How well do you have to know someone before you can take a nap on their couch?

On Saturday night I didn’t sleep well. Correction- on Saturday night I slept very well after about 4am. Before that time I was forced to find other alternatives such as reading, revising language vocab, walking up and down the lounge room a few hundred times and praying. By 7am on Sunday morning, most of my room-mates were already up.... so I soon followed. A couple of hours later I was sitting in church in the stuffy heat of the hottest time of the year, struggling to keep my eyes open during the sermon.

After church, I decided to run some errands. I had borrowed a blender the night before from a friend so I took that back to her place. We sat and talked for a while. Finally, I said, “I’d better go and take a rest. I’m tired.” My friend simply pointed to the couch I was sitting on and said, “Go ahead.” So I did. I stretched out with a cushion under my head and slept for nearly three hours. When I finally woke, I didn’t hear, “You call that a nap?” My friend didn’t criticise me for my excessive noonday sleeping. Instead she asked, “You hungry? I’ve got some leftovers...”

How many houses are there in your area where you could feel OK about taking a nap? Perhaps this depends partly on whether or not you are a napper?

For me, I need to know my host reasonably well. I need an invitation. (I’d feel a bit embarrassed if they invited me in for a cuppa and five minutes into the chat I was fast asleep...) I wouldn’t want to feel as though I was intruding or disturbing their household routine.

Last night I realised that May 7 is Good Shepherd Sunday. As I read the texts it was cool to think I had just received a lesson in the Shepherd’s care. “The LORD is my shepherd; I have everything I need. He lets me rest” (Psalm 23:1-2a.) He feeds me and he leads me. He renews and protects me. He anoints and blesses me. The Good Shepherd provided a couch in Phnom Penh yesterday and I was happy to stretch out on it.

Another aspect of the Shepherd’s heart is to find lost sheep. In Matthew 18, Jesus tells the story of the Shepherd who leaves his ninety-nine in order to search for the one who has gone missing. In John 10, Jesus contrasts the behaviour of a hired hand to that of the Good Shepherd. The hired hand runs away at the first sign of danger, leaving the sheep exposed. The wolf attacks and the sheep scatter. But the Good Shepherd stays. He is willing to sacrifice his own life to protect the lambs he loves.

Isaiah tells us that the Shepherd is particularly concerned for the poor. “I will feel the poor in my pasture; the needy will lie down in peace.” (Isaiah 14:30.) His heart is to strengthen the weak, bind up the injured, protect the vulnerable and guide the lost. He promises to feel the hungry in rich pastures.

Monday is here already and I’m not sure if you will get a chance to lie down and rest in the way that I did yesterday. (Perhaps you still think of daytime sleeps as only for pre-school kids?) In any case, may you find some way to receive the God Shepherd’s rest. Furthermore, may the Good Shepherd equip us with everything necessary for seeking the wanderers and pasturing the poor.