‘Unless the Lord builds the house,
those who build it labour in vain.
Unless the Lord guards the city,
the guard keeps watch in vain.
It is in vain that you rise up early
and go late to rest,
eating the bread of anxious toil;
for he provides for his beloved during sleep’

(psalm 127:1-2)

Lately, Ive been getting a lot of adverts for snoring remedies in my social media news feeds. It’s been a few years since I’ve done any searches on line for such products…those that know me well know that none of them work! So why are they appearing now? More than one person has recounted to me how they have had a conversation which included a certain product and, lo and behold, that product started to appear in their feeds. One can only conclude that the information gained came through the microphone. As I cannot recall any recent conversation with anyone about snoring, it begged the question…does Google listen to me snoring at night!?

Another question I asked myself was does God listen to my snoring? As God is so much greater than Google what does he listen to? Does he listen to my dreaming, even though I rarely remember what my dreams were about? Does he reveal himself and his will for me in my dreams and my sleep? The last dream I do remember was being on a ship with a very bad captain who had tricked me into coming on board. As I didn’t have a uniform I couldn’t work had to go down in the hold whilst a friend who did have a uniform could work on deck. The upset and frustrated I felt in this dream was akin to what I was experiencing with the isolation of the Covid 19 lockdowns. I think The Lord was trying to remind me of how important the hold is. What are we carrying inside and what are we ‘holding’ onto? A reminder that in all things God is still the Good Captain and that sometimes we are called to ‘hold fast’ and pray in the belly of the beast!

When problems arise and decisions are immanent the proposition ‘sleep on it’ is often advised. Is this so that when rested, we can make a better decision or is there something deeper and more meaningful in our ‘going to rest and in our rising again.’ The ‘Shema Israel’ of Deuteronomy 6:4-7 says that our understanding of God, who we are to talk about during the day; that love of God needs to be taken to bed with you at night. As in any loving relationship, you are going to hear back from the other person! This current church year has been dedicated to St. Joseph. I must confess knowing little about devotion to St. Joseph until reading Fr. Donald Calloway’s ‘Consecration to St. Joseph.’ A devotion of more recent times is to the ‘Sleeping St. Joseph.’ Not only can you ‘sleep on it’ but you can write out a prayer, tuck it under the ‘Sleeping St. Joseph’ statue and ask St. Joseph to ‘sleep on it’ as well! This reminds us of the fact that God primarily communicated to St. Joseph while he slept…

“Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there till I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.”

(Matthew 2:13 – see also 1:20)

I suspect that most of us wont get the same crystal clear message that Joseph did, but I think we can remain open to that possibility. In the meantime how can we get more clarity on God’s communication to us in our sleep time? Prayer before bedtime has always been held up as important for the Christian. I also found that I could remember my dreams better if I wrote them down as soon as I wake up. And if you don’t get any profound messages or words of knowledge? Well, rest in the knowledge that God is the Good Captain in charge of this vessel you are travelling in. He is in charge and is resting and renewing you in body, mind and soul.

As for google intrusions…there are a few remedies. Turn off the phone! Or at least turn off the microphone and watch what you give your ‘permissions’ to (there’s a whole new blog in that!) Leave the smartphone downstairs at night. You could even consider replacing it with a ‘dumb’ phone. And make prayer the last thing you do at night…

‘Save us Lord, while we are awake.

Protect us while we sleep.

That we may keep watch with Christ

and rest with him in peace.’

(the antiphon to the Nunc Dimittis from the divine office for Compline)