|
Perhaps everyone feels at some point that tingling uncontrollable urge to move one’s legs while trying to sleep. How annoying to feel that itchy twitching, creepy crawly feeling! For some of us it goes beyond an occasional annoyance and becomes a nightly affliction that plagues restful sleep. In pondering restless leg syndrome (RLS), I often wondered why it only showed up at night, as I never suffered with it during the day.
“Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28 NRSV)
Try this scenario: It’s 2 am and RLS just kicked in. It might be minutes or hours but it says sleep is done for now. When it first stared a few years ago, the restless Leg made for anxiety for the morning to come... how on earth can I get through the day with an hour or two of sleep? It has changed over time... my biggest worry is disturbing my life partner next to me!
“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble”. (Matt 6:34 NRSV)
Once again we are given opportunity to transform the moments of sleeplessness into a moment with God. Sleep is elusive but prayer is continuous, and the awareness of God’s presence in the restlessness has its own calming effect. “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” (St. Augustine)
Maybe Augustine’s ‘confession’ (his prayer) might guide you on your journey through pain and suffering this day:
Prayer: “Who will grant it to me to find peace in you? Who will grant me this grace, that you should come into my heart and inebriate it, enabling me to forget the evils that beset me and embrace you, my only good? What are you to me? Have mercy on me, so that I may tell. What indeed am I to you, that you should command me to love you, and grow angry with me if I do not, and threaten me with enormous woes? Is not the failure to love you woe enough in itself? Alas for me! Through your own merciful dealings with me, O Lord my God, tell me what you are to me. Say to my soul, I am your salvation. Say it so that I can hear it. My heart is listening, Lord; open the ears of my heart and say to my soul, I am your salvation. Let me run towards this voice and seize hold of you. Do not hide your face from me: let me die so that I may see it, for not to see it would be death to me indeed.” (This is the famous passage from St. Augustine’s Confessions (Lib 1,1-2,2.5,5: CSEL 33, 1-5))
Thought for the day: I believe God summons us toward prayer, toward meditation, toward contemplation, toward intimacy, but it's just as important to know God is also patiently supportive, tenderly urging us into each present moment, meeting our sporadic will with an ever-present grace, settling us down as we twitch, as we jitter about, and even as we fail in the effort. - Greg Funderburk
Kenn Stright
|
