thesoulpurposedotorg

Advent is a spiritual season of waiting and watching which requires one to be awake and alert. I suffer from insomnia as part of a chronic illness. It’s a strange thing to wait and watch for sleep to come…not wanting to be awake or alert and yet being so. I know I’m not alone in this – insomnia plaques many adults in this turbulent time. I wonder how anyone can sleep soundly…perhaps they don’t watch the news or read it on-line. As I watch and wait, I’m learning to use this time to “control the present and to live supremely well now” in surprising ways. (see yesterday’s post for this reference)
This has become a time to repeat the “Jesus Prayer” Om Jesu Christi Misreri Nobis which means O Lord Jesus Christ, shed thy grace on us. I have learned to control my thoughts in this way. A wise man taught me that our thoughts are like creative sounds that manifest according to their own nature. Another way to put this is this: what the mind dwells upon… it becomes.
When I dwell on the peace of Christ through this ancient prayer of the heart, I awaken to that peace. A problem that might be on the back burner of my brain will take on a new shape and solve itself. Perhaps there has been someone that day who pushed my buttons…in the midst of sleeplessness transformed by prayer, I begin to see this other with compassion and to see myself through the mirror of their eyes. Often the news of the day or the debating politicos make me wonder at our future as a planet much less as a nation…..Lord Jesus Christ have mercy makes melody out of dissonance and I remember that God so passionately loves this world that he became one of us. And I watch to see how he will live through us in these turbulent times. The candidates faces waft through my mind and I pray “Lord Have Mercy” and I can see the light of Christ in their eyes even though their hearts might be filled with fear or arrogance that belies that light. Indeed, Lord Have Mercy. Then sleep comes, “God gives to his beloved sleep” the psalmist wrote and as I settle down into the arms of the beloved, sleep comes and my soul is truly awake.