Dr. Stieglitz
Sep 6, 20171 min
Proverbs 6:9
"How long will you lie down, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep?"
There is a danger in seeing sleep as a refuge. It steals the life of its adherents. Obviously everyone needs a regular and healthy amount of sleep; but there is a temptation to use sleep to battle fear, anxiety, and a host of other ailments.
Sleep can become a temptation as well as a refresher. It is like most temptations – we need it in moderation and it can become our undoing when we take the blessing of moderation and try and make it our main course. We need money; but if we make it our goal, we will pierce ourselves with many a pang. We need intimate physical relations; but if we focus on the pleasure of that, then we will wander into affairs and destroy ourselves. We need authority and power; but if we pursue these without restraint, we will forget God and abuse people.
There are times when you must push yourself past where you are comfortable. You need to not give into the impulse to sleep and take it easy – not in a workaholic pursuit of activity but a regular declaration of the superiority of the soul over the body. You will not sleep every time the impulse comes.
Until tomorrow,
Gil Stieglitz