“If you fall asleep as you pray, don’t worry. What better place to doze off than in the arms of your Father?” ~ Max Lucado
Falling asleep in someone’s presence can mean a lot of things to a lot of people. Some might say that is an insult to the other. Some might say that it implies incredible trust. Still others would say it is a sign of disrespect. Perhaps it is all of the above, depending upon the person and how you relate to that person.
When it comes to falling asleep in the presence of God, well, I would think that would be quite all right. I remember, way back in third grade, that the Sisters used to tell us to pray our rosary every night when we went to bed. Some of us would be upset about that because we were afraid that we might insult God if we fell asleep before finishing our rosaries. The nuns always assured us, “Don’t worry, darling. The angels will finish your rosary for you and God will be pleased that your last thoughts and words were about Him.”
As corny as that sounds, I think there is a lot of merit to that thought. I think that God is pleased when our last thoughts and words center around Him. After all, there are a lot of things about which we could dwell when we go to bed. We might we worried about our work, we might be thinking about the next day, we might be obsessing about a person or an experience. Our thoughts might be anywhere but upon God.
If we focus on God — thinking about Him and praying to Him — when we go to bed, it is inevitable that we will fall asleep in the midst of our thoughts. They say that we dream about the last thing we think about. Wouldn’t it be nice to have our dreams center on our relationship with God rather than our relationship with the world.
There are very few people in our lives that we are probably comfortable enough with that we could go to sleep on them. God should be on that list. How comfortable are you with God?
FAITH ACTION: Spend a good amount of time with God today in any way that best suits you: prayer, service, Mass, contemplation, or plain ol’ silence. Cozy up to God and give Him a chance to speak to your heart.
Remember, Fridays of Lent are Days of Abstinence.