Sleepless in Scottsdale

Peter Baker | 02:59, 4 September 2012 | Scottdale, Arizona

Sleeplessness can be a really frustrating experience. Not the insomnia which goes with ill health or the disturbed sleep of a troubled mind, but the failure of the brain to persuade the body what time it is.

It doesn't help that you travel a third of the way around the world and arrive somewhere when, had you stayed put, you would have been fast asleep at that point! 

No wonder I am confused!  Sitting in a hotel lobby writing this at 2.10am, answering emails to people whose day is just beginning, even ringing my eldest daughter to say "Good morning" and she replies, "Good night!" 

The body says "Up, work, do something!" The brain counters, "But look at the clock!"  Mind doesn't always win over matter. 

So you look for ways to trick the body. Like listening to hotel lobby muzak. Is there anything more depressing in all the world than listening to rubbish on your own? But sleep does not come.

You play games on the iPhone and lose to yourself ten times over. But still, no Z's!

You walk outside. But it's like standing in a sauna here in the desert at night. Still no shut-eye! It's 88 degrees!

And yet you do feel so tired mentally. (You're not kidding, you sound it .... Ed) Jet lag is the body's way of telling you to stay where you are and not travel. 

Respect to those people who clock up the air miles every month. I guess your body learns to cope. 

But right now, in this moment when the minute hand on the large clock by the cactus seems to take an hour to move, I look for sleep but it will not arrive.

"My eyes stay open through the watches of the night," says the Psalmist (119:148). So I'm not the only one still awake! But he continues: "That I might meditate on your word." 

Maybe that's the secret to beating insomnia? Try counting your blessings instead of counting sheep.

So I meditated on the Word and stumbled on another gem from the Psalmist. "For you I wait all the day long." Psalm 25:5. And the night too!

So this is what I'm thinking about in the wee small hours. Is our willingness to wait for the Lord as real as the experience of waiting for sleep to come? The former enlivens us. The latter closes the eyes.

One final thought at 3am from Psalm 121. God neither slumbers or sleeps!