The truth is, I routinely oversleep. It’s med-related. But that’s no comfort.
Going off my meds is not an option. I have to find some other way to reduce the amount of sleep I need. But how? I ask myself that almost every day.
Things I’ve Tried
I’ve tried putting my alarm clock across the room so I have to get out of bed to turn it off.
I’ve tried practicing getting up to my alarm.
I’ve tried getting out of bed in the morning, going into the living room, and sitting in an armchair.
I’ve tried motivating myself with treats or rewards for getting up.
I’ve tried monitoring my sleep.
I’ve tried prayer.
I’ve tried visualizations.
I’ve tried affirmations.
Nothing has worked. I don’t know what to do.
Something to Keep in Mind
One thing I tell myself when I’m trying to comfort myself is that I’ve spent at least thirteen, if not fourteen or fifteen, years of my adult life severely depressed. And I’ve used sleep to cope with the depression. After spending that many years habitually over-sleeping, it’s going to take some time to create a new habit of getting out of bed and staying out of bed.
The Homily at St. Luke’s
A couple Sundays ago, Rev. Dr. Randall R. Warren spoke at St. Luke’s about finding the divine in daily life. He used two scripture texts as examples.
In Hebrews 13, the author speaks of keeping ourselves free from the love of money. Our relationship with money is an ordinary part of our lives. But when we look through our relationship with money to the divine, we encounter the spiritual truth that God will never leave us or forsake us.
Another example, in Luke 14, Jesus notices people seating themselves in places of honor at a dinner party—a very ordinary event. He points out that if you take an honored place and your host asks you to give your place to someone more important, you’ll be humiliated. But if you take a low place and your host asks you to move up, then you will be honored.
The spiritual, or divine, truth this teaches is: “For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
But, as Rev. Randall observed, Jesus has another spiritual truth to teach in the passage, a radical one. If you hold a dinner party and invite people who can’t repay you, you demonstrate the values of what Rev. Randall called “the empire of God.” You can transform an ordinary event to a divine one.
Rev. Randall presented a challenge to the congregation: see through ordinary events and learn something about ourselves and about God. Attend to the presence of God in our daily lives.
Back to my Challenge
This brings me back to my daily challenge: getting out of bed. What is the divine or spiritual dimension to this ordinary situation? How can I spot God in the morning?
One thing that comes to mind is the common teaching that God will never give us more than we can handle, but that has little to no Biblical foundation. It’s a nice thought. There have been times in my life I believed it was true. But God has given me more than I can handle. He gave me a mental illness. I can’t handle that.
A better idea comes from Psalms 46:1, “God is our refuge and our strength, a very present help in times of trouble.”
Or I could go back to the Hebrews statement, God “will never leave you or forsake you.”
No matter how difficult my mornings are, God is present and will help me.
The idea is: surrender. I can’t force myself out of bed on my own. But God can help.
Maybe if I surrender this situation to God, then God will guide me to a resource that will help me.
What I’m Reading Now
One resource I’ve turned to recently in my search for help is Willpower by Roy F. Barmeister and John Tierney. The book has one chapter called, “Did a higher power help Eric Clapton and Mary Karr stop drinking?” It includes all sorts of theories as to why surrendering to a higher power sometimes increases people’s willpower.
One of these theories involves bright lines, defined as “clear, simple, unambiguous rules.” They say, when you believe that one of the rules is “a commandment from God” then “you have more reason to expect your future self to respect it, and therefore your belief becomes a form of self-control: a self-fulfilling mandate.”
Does God Care?
So then the questions comes: does God care whether or not I get out of bed on time in the morning?
The Bible is full of people rising early—Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and more. Apparently, they thought it was a good idea. If Jesus did it, maybe that’s a sign God wants me to too.
My personal logic is: God loves me. God wants me to thrive. In order to thrive, I need to sleep less. So God must want me to sleep less. In order to sleep less, I need to develop the habit of getting up on time. So God must want me to get up on time.
I like to believe in a God who cares about me and how I live my life.
So What?
If I believe that it is God’s command for me to get up on time every morning, then will I do it? And if I fall off the wagon, can I get back on?
That remains to be seen. It’s worth a try.
How About You?
What gets you up in the morning? Do you think God cares whether you get up on time? Why or why not? Share in the comments.
