Day 8: Lent for my Night

The past few nights, I woke up right around 3:30 AM and couldn’t shut off my mind.

And earlier in those same days, I’d tried napping and my mind and heart would interrupt.

It seems that my spirit, that God’s voice, is trying to get my attention, and I must listen.

I pray for dreams, but instead He wakes me up to dream, awake with Him, to have conversations, to write and process.

And I am tired, but I feel alive.

And I think that losing an hour or two of sleep at night to hear is worth all my questions, all my requests for more of God’s voice toward me.

And when I am finally too tired to think anymore,

I ask Him to sing to me,

to give me a lullaby

that puts me back to rest,

that clears my mind

and brings peace.

And in my mind I hear this low, beautiful voice,

this kind and quiet baritone song that puts everything back to stillness, back to peace.

Maybe Lent is for a new kind of voice, a new listening, a preparation for something.

Maybe God is speaking, waiting to awaken something in me and you.

Ask for dreams.

Ask for Spirit and voice.

It just might keep you awake at night,

speaking of new life and fresh perspective.

Jump in, afraid and unafraid,

and you’ll find that Lent means something beyond the bounds of now and the next 32 days.

And I hope we find Kingdom stretched over us,

Kingdom called out of us

and poured into us,

Kingdom for our day

and our night,

for our weeping and rejoicing-

Kingdom for all of our human experience.

Amen.