Home By Another Way Advent Week 2
Last week, we invited you to join us in exploring spiritual practices this Advent that will sustain you, nourish your soul, and give you courage and wisdom for the long road ahead. We invited you to “go home by another way” to Christmas this year.
To start your journey, we asked you to begin the practice of setting aside 15 minutes a day to be still in silence. What has that been like for you? Keep going this week, spending 15 minutes a day being still—no screens, no music, no talking, not even reading. Just. Be. Still.
This week, we invite you to add a second spiritual practice—one that might surprise you, because it doesn’t appear on many lists of spiritual “activities.” It’s not praying. It’s not attending a worship service. It’s not fasting, reading scripture or singing sacred music.
What is it?
SLEEP.
Spiritual disciplines are, by definition, activities that we do to place ourselves before God, to move closer to God. How does sleep do that?
Going to sleep is an act of trust and surrender, an acknowledgement that we are not in control. Accepting that we need to sleep means recognizing we have limits and rely on something beyond ourselves for restoration. Sleep helps us to process and clear away all the debris that piles up during our waking hours. Sleep offers deep healing for body and soul. That all sounds like what spiritual practices help us do, right?
Plus, we need to sleep, and sleep well, if we’re going to be effective in answering God’s call to do justice, love fiercely, and walk humbly. It’s the oxygen mask theory of service—take care of yourself first before you try to help those traveling with you!
For all these reasons, we invite you to be intentional about getting enough sleep this Advent. That’s 7 to 9 hours a night. And if possible, also try to build in a short 20-30 minute nap in the early afternoon a few days.
As we mentioned last week, this year’s Advent lessons come from the gospel of Matthew. Not once but four times in his Christmas story, Matthew specifically mentions sleep as a key to connecting to God. First, when Joseph was sound asleep, God’s angel appeared to him in a dream to instruct him not to be afraid to marry Mary even though she had already conceived a child. Second, it’s while the magi were asleep that they got a warning not to go back to Herod to tell him where the baby Jesus was. Then, after the magi went home by another way, a sleeping Joseph was visited in another dream and told to get up and flee to Egypt with Mary and the baby to keep them safe from a murderous Herod. Finally, after they’d been in Egypt for some time, Joseph got the “all-clear” message from God while he was—you guessed it—asleep! And he, Mary and Jesus went home by another way.
The bible is pretty clear: sleep is an important way people can connect to God! It is a worthy and important spiritual practice.
So this year, despite the whirl and swirl and chaos of the holidays, not to mention the whirl and swirl and chaos of the daily atrocities threatening our democracy, despite all of it (or maybe because of it!), commit to practicing the spiritual discipline of consistently getting enough sleep as you make your way home by another way.
