2 Lines for Falling Asleep & Waking Up
The past two days I’ve been helped by meditating on Psalm 46. I’ve been repeating to myself the two lines that repeat in the psalm (verse 7 & 11):
The Lord of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Last week my son’s anesthesiologist told me that the way someone falls asleep under anesthesia is generally the way someone wakes up from anesthesia. So, several months ago when my son went under anesthesia for a CT scan, that day’s anesthesiologist wanted to move things along quickly. He gave my son an intense dosage of anesthetic that knocked him out quickly…45 seconds tops, but he went down kicking and screaming. An hour later, Cru woke from the anesthesia in the same spirit–troubled and screaming.
This last Thursday for my son’s MRI, we dealt with a different anesthesiologist who moved things along more slowly. He gave my son a less intense dosage of anesthesia. It took about 3 or 4 minutes for my son to konk out. This time there was no kicking or screaming, just a gentle drifting off to sleep. And, sure enough, my son came out of the anesthesia in the same fashion–a slow, gentle waking up.
This got me to thinking: is this how normal sleep works? When I fall asleep troubled do I tend to wake up troubled? When I fall asleep at peace do I tend to wake up at peace? Is the attitude and disposition I take to bed at night the attitude and disposition I wake up with in the morning?
So far my experimentation shows that everyday going to sleep & waking up is much like the nature of anesthesia: how we fall asleep is how we wake up.
I want to work on going to sleep and waking under the comforting words of Psalm 46. These are the lines I’ll be repeating/praying as I go to bed tonight:
The Lord of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
If the theory holds, I ought to find these words somewhere near my lips in the morning…
One obvious application to me is that this is why Paul said not to let the sun go down on your anger. (Eph. 4.26) The anger you hold at night will still be with you in the morning.
Your observations here remind me of these line from Psalm 59:
But I will sing of Your strength;
I will sing aloud of Your steadfast love in the morning.
For You have been to me a fortress
and a refuge in the day of my distress.
O my Strength, I will sing praises to You,
for You, O God, are my fortress,
the God Who shows me steadfast love.
Great post. Interesting about the anesthesia too. Years back when I went through a 12 hour surgery I had a ton of people praying for me and went into surgery with that “peace that passes understanding”. I came out that way too (until the pain hit – ha). In the following months of stressful cancer treatment, I made a point of reading and soaking in verses from the Bible that calmed me and soothed me before bed each night. It really did make a huge difference, so your point above makes sense to me.
Haven’t check your blog in sometime..but tonite I did..this is heavy…and worth praying on and doing a little sermon over..”Be anxious for nothing ..but in everything be in prayer and supplication..make your request known to God”
