Sleepiness

I’ve noticed that I used to have more energy when I was younger. As I have approached the end of my thirties, I’ve needed to be much more intentional about keeping my energy levels up. This has, of course, something also to do with the fact that I have four small children who, at various points, have caused sleep to be a challenge in my household

Through the wisdom of others, I have learned that there are many things one can do to help get better sleep and to be more wakeful during the day: waiting an hour or so before drinking coffee in the morning to let the body’s cortisol levels spike naturally and then using caffeine after that to sustain alertness; not having caffeine after about 10am so that it is entirely out of the system by bedtime; regular exercise in the morning; not eating many carbs during the day to lower glucose levels and thereby avoiding energy crashes; going outside when the sun is rising to set the body’s circadian rhythm properly; having cold showers to produce adrenaline and heighten alertness; in the evening, not looking at screens after 8pm and keeping lighting low to mimic the effect of the setting sun

There are probably a couple of other things I could name here but you’re probably wondering why I’m saying all of this. The reason is that I want to make the point that, to wake up physically, it’s often the case that quite a lot of effort, thought and techniques are needed. You can’t just expect to do the same old things without thinking about it and feel full of energy. And sometimes if you change something it can have transformational effects.

I am not a doctor or a scientist, so please seek out proper expert advice before following any of mine. But I am a priest, and I see significant analogies between bodily health and the health of the soul. The body is naturally sleepy and devoid of energy in all sorts of circumstances and the same is true of our souls.

And we see this almost perverse sleepiness in the story of the Transfiguration. We’re told that Christ took Peter, James and John up on the mountain to pray. Consider here that shortly before this Jesus had fed five thousand people with a few loaves and fish and that Peter had confessed Jesus to be the Messiah. You would have thought they would be excited to be on the mountain praying with him, not least because he chose those three to be a kind of special inner circle. And yet, we are told that that they were heavy with sleep.

Before we judge them too harshly, let’s recognise that in the disciples we often see a picture of ourselves. It is interesting when you look at the original Greek description of their sleepiness. We are told that they are weighed down by hypos, which is where we get our words “hypnotism” and “hypnotise”.

We can of course be physically too tired to engage in the spiritual life, but it is also true that we can be hypnotised, meaning that we are so dazzled and distracted by the comforts and material advantages of the modern world that we simply have no inclination or desire to pray or to cultivate our own souls. We are asleep. And the sad reality is that the vast majority of people in our culture live and die like this. They may be physically awake. They may even by intellectually awake. But they are spiritually dead. And, like a still-born child, they simply never wake up to the real world.

Waking Up

We are not only a physical body with an intellectual mind but we are also a soul. There is a spiritual part of us that is created and (we hope) destined for eternal union with God in Christ. Many people exercise the body; many people exercise the mind. But do we spend the same kind of energy attending to our souls, to the spiritual part of ourselves?

Lent begins in three days: How do you feel about it? Are you excited? Are you dreading it? Maybe you don’t know enough about it yet? Perhaps you are indifferent and you intend simply to ignore it? I want to suggest to you that Lent gives all of us an opportunity to cultivate in an intentional way the most important part of ourselves: our souls.

You will all know the saying of Jesus that we are to love God with all of our heart, our soul, our strength, and with all of our mind (Luke 10:27). The great spiritual writer Anthony Bloom says the following about this:

Bloom tells us that loving God with all of our strength implies a conscious effort of the will. And here I once again draw the analogy with the discipline of the body to produce health and wakefulness. All of those things that I mentioned earlier take time to learn about and a conscious effort of the will to enact.

Let me tell you a fact: nobody gets used to taking cold showers or plunging themselves into cold water. But millions of people around the world do it. The reason is because, when done safely and with understanding, the effects are unmistakeably positive. But it requires a decision: a moment when you say to yourself, “I am deciding consciously that I am going to do this because, even though I do not necessarily like it very much, it will produce an end which will I like very much indeed and that will benefit me greatly.”Let’s translate that to the spiritual life: a lot of the time we don’t feel like praying, we don’t feel like fasting, we don’t feel like giving alms, we don’t feel like going to church. Let me be even more honest: I find Lent a serious challenge. I don’t like giving things up. I don’t like fasting. I don’t like going without. So why do it? Whatever the practice is, the end or the goal is same – and this is what I exhort us all to keep in mind as we approach the Lenten season – the end is God, closer union with him as we lament our sin and waywardness, and as we more earnestly seek his face.

On Wednesday evening, I will put some skin on the bones and talk a bit more specifically about Christ’s teaching on all of this, but I want to make this basic plea to you at this point: say to yourself now that you are not only going to observe certain disciplines this Lent, but that you are going to embrace them because you are going to keep the end in mind. In fact, you are going to rejoice in whatever fast or good habit you take up, even if it is unpleasant at the time, because it is producing Christ in you. And because this is what you really want.

I’m sure many of you will have seen the original Rocky movie starring Sylvester Stallone. Rocky is an anonymous southpaw boxer who is given a once in a lifetime opportunity to fight the all-singing, all-dancing world champion Apollo Creed. The thing everybody always remembers from that movie (and all the other ones) are the training scenes. At first, Rocky crawls out of bed, breaks five or six raw eggs into a glass, drinks them and then stumbles out into the cold morning night for a slow and painful jog. But he gradually builds himself up through hard work and perseverance until he finds himself in peak condition, skipping, punching, jumping, and running at an unbelievable rate until, finally, he is ready for the ultimate confrontation.

I don’t know where you find yourself on that spectrum. Maybe all you can do at this stage is crawl out of bed and run a few paces. Friend, if that’s what you can do, then do it. You have to start somewhere. And, just as any athlete makes progress through discipline and commitment in the physical realm, so you will make progress in the spiritual.

Until Next Time

I’ve run out of time today, so I will finish there. But I very much want to emphasise that this is part one of two and that you’ll have to come back on Ash Wednesday to hear the rest. Suffice to say that I will be speaking in more detail there about Christ’s teaching in the Sermon on the Mount on what have come to be thought of as the three pillars of Lent: almsgiving, fasting, and prayer. Let me exhort you, then, as a first step, and especially if you don’t know what to do or how to engage in Lenten disciplines: the Church of England calendar really has only two days in the year when some kind of fast is expected. You can fast at other times, of course, but those two days are Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Let me encourage you to get Lent off to a good start by observing Ash Wednesday as a day of fasting.

As a caveat, I must warn you to be very careful about fasting if you have a health condition or if you are pregnant. Consult a medical doctor if you are in any doubt.

But everyone can do something. If you are completely new to fasting, you may want simply to skip one meal on Ash Wednesday. Those who are more experienced may want to not eat for the entire day. You may want to give up something else on this day or for the whole season such as sweet foods, alcohol, watching TV or social media. You may want to use the time you gain to pray or to engage in another act of devotion. But start on Wednesday. And we will talk more then about where to go from there.

For now though please remember that Lent is a gift given to us by God our Father and the Church our Mother. Let us therefore keep this holy and solemn season with great joy, faith, and enthusiasm. And, as the disciples departed from their slumber and became fully awake to the presence of Christ’s glory, so too may our souls come alive to God through this holy time.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.