Soul Snack 8/202 ... Receiving Rest
Slippers shuffle with a frail attempt at stealth down a shadowed hallway. Uninvited sleeplessness has arrived, the remainder of the household continues to rest.Sleepless nights and wearisome days assail all of us at various times. The darkness of such hours can prevail.
Many grab a book, some grab a bottle, others point a remote at a blank screen. Even pills cannot repair chronic sleeplessness, when tomorrow night is as likely to be as hollow as tonight.
The body and mind know exhaustion. Yet in the dark hours the human spirit is still active while the body and mind cry for inactivity. With an active spirit the remainder of the person will never be permitted to rest.
The human spirit is enlivened and energised by many good or bad things. It is He alone who is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ that can only minister peace to my spirit.
When God is engaged rest is received.
Reaching for the pills, the potions or simply a fresh pillow are not rest enhancers, for I will need them too, tomorrow night.
T.S.Eliot reflects in "Choruses from The Rock"...:
The endless cycle of ideas and action.
Endless invention, endless experiment,
Brings knowledge of motion, but not stillness,
Knowledge of speech, but not silence,
brings knowledge of words but not The Word.
Wonderfully, it is only when I'm still that I'll receive The Word personally. My spirit supernaturally stroked, my rest found.
My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him. Ps 62:1
To engage with God in the dark, is to receive The Light before dawn.(Another special thanks to Father Ronan Kilgannon for this Snack's inspiration)