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. (Psalm 127:2, ESV)
I’ve only become aware of former US Poet Laureate Billy Collins in recent days, since turning over the pages of the latest Golfer’s Journal and reading Tom Coyne’s words about the venerable man. I should be more broadly read, I guess, but there is only so much time in a day, especially a day with golf included.
As it turns out, the prolific Collins exposes me again, for the 78-year-old is still an avid golfer. Maybe that should not come as a surprise. Tweeds fit golfers and poets alike. Collins, though, lives in Florida. Tweeds aren’t much use there.
In our frenetic coming and going and doing and undoing, we war against God’s care for us.What is of use, there and anywhere, is a good night’s sleep. I don’t know if it is the sleep-deprived or the well-rested who appreciate this more. The latter don’t have to work so hard at it, for sure. Meanwhile, the former employ whatever method they might to induce slumber. Here’s where Collins may be most helpful, if we adopt the non-literary device of his poem, “Night Golf”:
I remember the night I discovered,
lying in bed in the dark,
that a few imagined holes of golf
worked much better than a thousand sheep
Maybe it’s time to leave off counting sheep and walk your mental way from hole to hole until your birdie at the fifth (or sixth or seventh) puts you down for the night.
The Scripture credits sleep, as it comes, to the Lord. David, that “poet laureate” of Judah, wrote his own verse 3,000 years ago:
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways. (Psalm 139:2-3)
It was David’s son, Solomon, who wrote also of the vanity of anxiety in our days. As God’s beloved, he will give us sleep. In our frenetic coming and going and doing and undoing, we war against his care for us. We make for sleepless nights.
Friends, if our nights would be sleepless, let them be like Peter’s awakening in Acts 12, where God stirred him in his jail cell, freed him from his chains, and led him to safety. Or let them be sleepless as we pray in vigil, as Peter’s friends in Mary’s house were doing at the time of his angelic release. We would all lose sleep for such a miracle! Otherwise, we do well to get the rest God gives us.
—
Jeff Hopper
September 4, 2019
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The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.