One of the simplest of all skills has evaded me for much of my adult life. One of those skills that most babies master in their earliest days seems to have mostly passed me by. One of the most basic of all talents has become my greatest battle.
I’m referring, of course, to sleep. Though I’m really good at falling asleep, I’m extremely poor at staying asleep. And, as I’m sure you’d agree, the staying is every bit as important as the falling! When night comes and bedtime draws near, I always face it with a mix of eagerness and dread—eagerness to get some rest but dread of waking up before I get enough rest. More often than not, I sleep for a time, then wake up in the wee hours—too tired to feel rested but too rested to fall back asleep. I often begin a new day discouraged, with my mind hazy and my brain sluggish. It’s a battle that has gone on for decades and one that is getting no better as I age. In fact, it could actually be getting worse.
I’ve long observed that insomnia is one of those afflictions that everyone else knows how to cure—everyone except the person experiencing it. Have you tried chamomile? Melatonin? Adjusting the temperature? Lowering the humidity? Cutting caffeine? White noise? The Calm app? Of course I have. I’ve tried all of that—I’ve tried the fringe and the mainstream and everything in between. None of it works for long or for good. Sleeping pills may work their magic, but that’s no long-term solution since they inevitably lead to a cycle of increased dosages providing diminished effect. So what to do?
In biographies, I’ve often noticed the connection between great men and short naps. Often those who accomplish the most are able to work until they are tired, then have a nap of twenty or thirty minutes and awaken feeling like a whole new man. That hasn’t proven an option for me. If I lay down for a half hour, I’ll spend the first 15 minutes in self-pity and the second in self-loathing. I’ll eventually give up and feel worse than I did when I began.
In Psalm 127, Solomon calls God’s people to labor with diligence, to expend their lives working toward those things that matter, for work is vain unless it is done for the Lord. “It is in vain that you rise up early / and go late to rest, / eating the bread of anxious toil.” And then he adds this: “for he gives to his beloved asleep.” And I wonder: But what about those times when he doesn’t give his beloved sleep?
I often think of all I could do if I wasn’t so tired so much of the time. I think of the extra capacity it would give me—the capacity to write more, read more, serve more, and do more. I think of how that kind of capacity is so close at hand, just an hour or two of sleep each night and my days would be transformed. Yet despite many prayers and much pleading, God has not seen fit to give it. I may go through brief phases when I sleep better, but a new bout of insomnia is never far away.
So I have decided I ought to receive this as God’s will—as a reality to be accepted rather than resented. After all, who am I to resist what God seems to have decreed? It is within his capacity to give me the sleep I crave. It would be no struggle for him to grant me a solid seven or eight hours each night. But that does not seem to be his plan for me. And so in this, as in so much else, I bow the knee to him.
That doesn’t mean I won’t keep praying and won’t keep trying—praying for sleep and trying to get better at it. That doesn’t mean I won’t try the next herbal concoction someone recommends as the one that changed their life. But it does mean that I won’t let myself feel like God doesn’t care about this or that it represents some kind of failure on my part. For I have long observed that as much as we always want God to strengthen us so we can do his will, he often chooses to weaken us so we can do his will. As he makes clear in his Word, his power is better displayed in human weakness than in human strength. And sometimes, I guess, that means in fatigue rather than in rest. Either way, it falls to me to trust that he loves, that he cares, and that he knows best.

The first day of a new month is an ideal time to ponder this: Right now, at this very moment, God is reigning from his throne. All will be well.
A new month brings a whole new batch of Kindle deals. I’ve added some already and should have a more complete list by 6:30 AM EST or so.
(Yesterday on the blog: What a New Day and New Month Will Bring)

Megan Basham’s new book intends to show that many Evangelical leaders have sold out to a leftist agenda. Samuel James offers this thorough review which accounts for the book’s strengths and weaknesses. “Somewhere in the process of development, this book had something that would have been genuinely persuasive and effective. There’s a version of it that would have focused on evangelical consequences rather than evangelical motivations, and would have provided a perch for truth-conscious Christians, regardless of what presidential candidate they like, to reflect on lessons learned in a truly incredible decade.”

This is a helpful call to cultivate Christlike compassion on social media. “It isn’t just my reputation on the line; I am a representative of something bigger than myself. The Lord has used this concept to point me toward an even greater reality: whenever I am on social media, regardless of what account I am logged into, I am a representative of Christ.”

In this case, Dave stands in for that person you know who is struggling to read the Bible regularly. “Few of us have it fully sorted, and so we don’t feel qualified to tell others what they should be doing. I certainly don’t feel like I can speak from anything other than the wisdom that comes from regular failure. But failure is a good teacher, even if I’m not a good student, so here are five tips I might give to Dave.”

Timothy Paul Jones explains how we can have confidence in the authorship of the gospels. This matters because it is a routine point of attack for skeptics.

Casey McCall: “Truth and righteousness become elastic concepts that bend at the discretion of whoever stands behind the podium. When it comes to doing what’s right, it’s damned, if you do it; justified endlessly, if we do it. When it comes to truth-telling, the rules change based on who’s doing the talking. This all occurs within a financially lucrative media ecosystem that has mastered the art of keeping everyone perpetually outraged by focusing our attention on what’s wrong with them.”

Small is often underrated. That’s true of churches, pastorates, disciplines, and much else.

When we are heavily burdened we are to take one specific action: cast. We are to throw or hurl or toss our burdens upon the Lord. We are to bring them to his attention and to plead with him for his help. And so we close our eyes and pray or we lift our eyes and cry out for his help, his assistance, his deliverance.

Some men pray to be made holy, but they wish to keep some little pet sin in the backyard.
—C.H. Spurgeon

Blessings to you today.

ChristianBook.com is having a pre-Christmas sale with lots of good deals including: New Morning Mercies and Come Let Us Adore Him by Paul Tripp, One Faithful Life by John MacArthur, and Hidden Christmas by Tim Keller.
(Yesterday on the blog: There Are Different Kinds of Tired)
How Do People Shipwreck Their Faith?
How do people shipwreck their faith? John Piper offers five different ways here.
There’s No Growth without Death
“I’m sure you’ve heard good Christians say things like I want to know God more this year. I want to be more prayerful. To read my Bible more regularly. To be more committed at church. Perhaps even give more. The problem is like with many new year resolutions they don’t see beyond February. Why? Because with most good intentions we don’t really think they have a cost.”
How To Be Gracious When Haters Gonna Hate
How can you be gracious when the haters are hating? Mark Ward has some ideas.
What to Say to Someone Suffering like Job
Eric Ortlund: “The book of Job does not directly tell us how to address Job-like suffering. But I think we can sketch what a helpful answer would be, if we take an approach exactly opposite from his friends.”
Sent ones
This article speaks about sending off and letting go.
When Is It Wrong to Complain?
I think we’d all agree that some complaining is wrong and some is not. This article helps distinguish between them.
Flashback: Pastoring Is So Much More Than Preaching
Can a shepherd care for his flock if he doesn’t know his flock? Can he be faithful to his charge if he doesn’t really know his sheep? Can he keep watch over all the flock if he is not familiar with the individual lives and challenges of the flock?

What should surprise us is not that God would judge sinners (that actually makes sense) but that he would save any of them. Heaven, not hell, is the real mystery of Scripture. —Michael Kruger