Social status is such a weird thing. There’s no lack of things we use to not only make ourselves fit in but also show how much more we fit in than someone else. Often, these things require some amount of foolishness on our part. Whether it’s our time, money, or health, there is always a cost to make others view us in a certain way, so much so that we’ve normalized our destructive behaviors. If you’re tired today, there’s a chance you know exactly what I mean.
Exhausted, yet fashionable
Let’s start off by saying that being tired isn’t a sin. Some people are simply denied sleep due to their circumstances. Health issues, needing to work multiple jobs, or just a neighbor with a newborn can all contribute to getting less sleep than we need.
However, many of us are tired because we choose to be. We find a sense of pride when telling others how little sleep we get each night. If we’re honest, we find comfort in identifying ourselves as “always tired,” as though that badge of honor makes us unique and interesting. After all, who wants to go into work and admit we got a solid 8 hours of sleep for the 200th night in a row?
Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. (1 Corinthians 10:31)
Yet for the Christian, this presents a problem beyond just wanting to take a nap at work. Asking ourselves a blunt question can often reveal the source of our exhaustion:
Am I exhausted because I was busy glorifying God?
Were we up all night with a child who was sick or having nightmares? To God be the glory for getting to show them sacrificial love. Could we have gone to bed 2 hours sooner, but we decided it was preferable to watch YouTube videos? In situations like that, we must honestly ask ourselves if we’re taking care of the life, time, and body God has given us to glorify Him with.
When we lose sleep, do we do so because we must, or because it’s become normal, even fashionable, to be tired? Let’s look at 3 reasons why we are tempted to give up the sleep we know we desperately need.
Losing sleep for our identity
knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin. (Romans 6:6-7)
If we boil down all the reasons people hate God, it often becomes one simple reason: We don’t want to give up who we are and what we want. We have certain goals and desires for who we want to be, and the cross absolutely threatens everything we, in our foolish and sinful hearts, find important.
Of course, this isn’t just true of unbelievers. Even those covered by the blood of Christ find ourselves wanting to be like everyone else. We have a desire to stand out, to have others look at us and think “Huh, that person is interesting.” We glorify ourselves by seeking an identity that glorifies ourselves.
In decades past, our idolatrous identity would be found by being strong and successful. No one was allowed to show weakness, ask for help, or be anything less than the ideal human being. “Fake it ‘till you make it” was the rallying cry of the time.
Of course, the pendulum must swing the other way. Today, we want to find an identity in being damaged. It’s not about recognizing our brokenness and need for Christ. Instead, it’s finding a sense of self in how “messed up” we are. We have a love-hate relationship with mental illness, making sure we let others know that we have anxiety, OCD, and anything else that makes us feel like we’re different.
This is where sleep deprivation enters the scene. We want to measure ourselves by the thoughts and opinions of others. And for some inexplicable reason, an entire culture thinks that a damaging lack of sleep makes us noteworthy. We find an identity by wanting others to think that we’re so busy, whether working hard or just enjoying ourselves, that we don’t have time for something as trivial as sleep.
But if our identity is in Christ, then seeking to glorify God must trump our desire to be like the world. We know we need to sleep. We understand that we’re tempted toward anger, laziness, or doing poor work when we’re tired. There’s no question that a lack of sleep stands in direct opposition to us having the energy and passion to glorify God in all we do.
Thus, the first enemy of glorifying God by caring for ourselves is our need to find an identity as someone who is sleep-deprived, rather than someone who is sold-out for Christ and willing to care for the life God has given us.
Losing sleep to poor self-control
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. (Galatians 5:22-23)
Perhaps we don’t accept a lack of sleep in order to preserve our identity. Perhaps we open our phones at 8:30, find some funny pictures, and when we eventually look up it’s somehow 11:00 already. Naturally, this is the third night it’s happened this week.
If we’re losing sleep because we get so caught up in other things that we don’t pay attention, there’s a good chance we’re letting go of self-control in order to indulge our desires. It doesn’t matter if we’re watching Netflix or scrolling through social media, the end result is always that we put our impulses over our needs.
Any time we find ourselves saying “I know I should do this, but I feel like doing this other thing,” we’ve sacrificed truth for emotion. We refuse to practice self-denial, knowing that just because we want to do something doesn’t mean we should do it.
Of course, the danger here isn’t only to our sleep health. A worldview that allows us to compromise what’s right for what feels good will find itself compromising in other areas as well. The same reason we miss sleep may be the same reason we look at pornography, gossip, or yell at our kids. We know we shouldn’t… but it feels good at the moment.
Losing sleep to anxiety
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6-7)
We’re a fearful bunch. We put so much effort into stressing about those things we have no control over that we forget who rules the universe with a sovereign hand. Even if we pray to God, we so often continue to worry because we don’t trust that He will answer.
Of course, God doesn’t always answer how we want Him to. In fact, He rarely answers how we want Him to. Why? Because we are infants to Him, and often what we think we need now is exactly what God knows we don’t need in the future.
Yet still we lay there, night after night, watching the clock slowly mark how many hours we’ve spent worrying. Our health deteriorates along with our joy as we keep trying to exercise control over the world around us, then slipping into fear and despair when we realize that we truly have no power at all.
Often, this comes down to a small view of God and a big view of ourselves. We forget that we have little power over our lives. Our job is at the whim of those higher up than us, not to mention the economy. Our health is one bad cell away from slipping away. Everything about our lives can seem random or at the mercy of fate, so we try desperately to find a way to fix it.
Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. “Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. “But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. “So do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows. (Matthew 10:28-31)
The greater we see God, the more we see the reality of our problems. We better understand that nothing that happens is a result of God not paying attention or having His divine plans thwarted. We see that nothing, not the will of man nor the chaos of nature, is beyond the realm of God’s sovereignty.
And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. (Romans 8:28)
There’s no need to lay awake at night from anxiety. God knows who we are and what He’s doing. We aren’t a faceless number in a crowd of billions. He knows each of us by name and has a greater plan in mind than what we see.
That’s not to say that everything will work out for the best when measured by human standards. That sickness may result in death. Our job may be lost. Our spouse may, indeed, leave us for someone else.
Yet when we trust God, we realize that there’s only one thing we can do about anything. Instead of focusing on the worries of this life, we can focus on the one who stands above all else. We can trust that God will use everything, especially our own suffering, for His glory. We can turn our eyes to eternity and try to comprehend how these brief 90 years on Earth will eventually be a vague memory after we’ve spent a thousand years in the presence of Christ.
And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life? (Matthew 6:27)
There’s no need to lose sleep over what we can’t control. Instead, we can sleep soundly under the care and love of the one who is Lord over all things.
Child of God… go to sleep
Sleep is a gift from God. He knows we can’t always be active, nor were we designed to just barely function. If we know it’s dangerous to eat just enough food to avoid starvation, why do we find it acceptable to be malnourished when it comes to sleep?
If we have the chance to sleep, to care for the bodies God has given us so that we can better glorify Him… why don’t we? There are certainly valid reasons to be tired, but so often we are tired because of our own choices.
For those who are regularly sleep-deprived, simply consider whether the things causing us to miss sleep are bringing glory to God. From there, ask whether those things require repentance.
Whether we’re choosing to miss sleep because it’s fashionable, we lack self-control, or we’re simply too anxious to sleep, we will find ourselves, in some way, needing to turn back to Christ. He is our identity. He has given us the Holy Spirit to give us the self-control needed to glorify God. And it’s Jesus Christ who has made us children of the Most High, the one who is over all.
Rest. Not just in a bed, but in the knowledge that our lives are meant to point to Christ. The pleasures and concerns of this world can never the joy and satisfaction found in living for Him instead of ourselves.
