Why Can New Parents and Residents Survive?

Why Can New Parents and Residents Survive?

So, have you ever wondered how some people can get by with very little sleep and others seem to need a lot? Ever wondered how at some points in your life you seem to need more sleep and then other times (like when you are a new parent) you can get by with very little and be tired, but still be ok?

People always say that you can't "make up" sleep, but it sure does seem like you can miss almost a while night or even more and somehow get a whole lot less than a "night sleep" and still be somewhat functional the next day! Something here does not make sense!

Well, I went to a conference over Spring break and heard someone talk about this - this guy was a good speaker, entertaining, interesting and all, but he was kinda clueless. You see, he just didn't see the Truth in front of him.

He have his talk about sleep - as you may or may not know - sleep has different stages or pasts to it - Stage 1, 2, 3, 4, and REM or Rapid Eye Movement. We progress through these phases through the night as we sleep and we need certain portions of them to consider ourselves rested and functional.

Well, here's the amazing part, the part Mr. Fancy Lecture Guy totally missed out on, if you miss sleep, like a night, for whatever reason, the baby's crying, work is bugging you, you are stressed out, whatever, your sleep cycle automatically adjusts. You cram the phases of sleep into a much smaller time frame. If you can get what is called "core sleep," which for most people is about 5 and 1/2 hours, you actually get the functionality of the full night sleep - and here is the amazing part: you are made to adjust this automatically. Now, you may not feel like a million bucks after just core sleep, as opposed to your usual, but literally the stages of your sleep adjust on their own!

Now, what did Mr. Fancy Lecture Guy miss out on? He missed God in this! He taught this like it was just an odd coincidence! Ludicrous! God made you this way! He made yo to be able to survive child bearing and me to survive delivering babies in the middle of the night and us to still be able to function in our lives. You see, HE knew that sometimes, some people, would not be able to get the full 8 hours of sleep consistently, and He also knew that people and life depended on those people (like moms and doctors and firefighters, for example) still being able to do all they do and well they next day or 2. So, He made a system where everything auto-adjusts. You don't have to say to your sleep when you go to bed - "now i want you to adjust my stages of sleep tonight" - in fact most of you had no idea how you survived those times in your lives when your sleep was majorly disturbed before you learned this - i sure didn't!

But, consider this: If there is a great big God, who is big enough to make you adjust like this. If there is a God who loves you and your family enough to cover you when you are tired. If there is a God who sees into our needs and world so perfectly that He gives gifts like this to us and we don't even know about them. Then, isn't it possible that He is there with us each step of the way in our lives? The answer is yes, a loud and consistent yes!

You see, He loves you very much! He made you!

So, the next time you are laying there in bed, getting ready to go to sleep, or even struggling to sleep, getting up with a sick kid, or having to go in to work, would you consider noticing? Notice that you are made this way! Thank God that He made you this way. Invite Him to join you in your night, your life, your day. Relish the fact, that while life is hard, we are not abandoned to the hardness of it - we have a God who wants to go through it with us, to help us.

If you would begin to notice and invite God into the moments of your life, you will begin to see life differently. You will begin your exit from "life as usual" in the American dream.

If you are sick of the get more, buy more, achieve more, satisfy more, eat more, exercise more, religion more, success more, society we live in. If you have tried it all out and found out that you still feel empty and lost. Please consider joining us Thursday night, the 21st of April, at McAllister Recreation Center, just off 20th and Schuyler Ave, Lafayette, 6:45-8:00PM. We spend our time trying to move out of the "more" of usual life and into the "More" of the One who made mom's get enough sleep! We notice people and how amazing they are and we appreciate them. We also notice their pain and hurts and troubles - we do not ignore them - instead, we care about them - we come beside them and help in any way we can. And we would love to share this with you - it is great way to live! Hope to see you there!

update

So, last Mtm, on the 24th, went wonderful - it was great to be able to really help someone out, for no reason other that the fact that they matter - if you were there, tell someone about it and if you were not, you missed a great chance to give something of yourself and get a heart full of joy.

I just wanted to remind you all that we will be hanging out this Thursday night 6:45-8:00PM at McAllister Recreation Center - just off 20th and Schuyler Ave, Lafayette - it will be a great time to hang with the kind of people who go to people's houses they don't know and help them out, for no reason except that they believe in something More in life than the everyday grind of American life!

hope to see you there!