The Beauty of Being Unconscious

Why do we sleep? Let’s put it another way. Why is it that, at any given moment during the day, over a billion people lie unconscious? As I post this, it is 3:25am in Mumbai, India. Many are flat on their backs and breathing hard. I’ll be there soon. Not in Mumbai, but in bed (probably later than I should…I’m notorious for piddling around when I should be asleep). How should we think about this? Why did God create us so that we need to be dead to the world for hours on end?

Here are two observations. This is not all that could be said, but it may help orient us to a proper framework for thinking about questions like these:

1. For man, sleeplessness is vanity.

Psalm 127:2 – “It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.”

2. For God, sleeplessness is glory.

Psalm 121:2-4 – “My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.”

When I sleep, God is giving me something that he doesn’t need. Come to think of it, he is always doing that. God has, I need. God is, I’m not. God can, I can’t. I need to hear that message all the time, but it comes to me in unique sweetness when I kiss my wife good night, close my eyes, and let God keep vigil.

Funny what you hear when you’re not awake to listen.