My blog on how awesome it is when God takes total control impressed deeply on me just how excellently He is actually always and constantly in total control! And nothing demonstrates this better than the daily, constant, repeated cycle of miracle that is experienced by all mankind everyday! Yes, sleeping and waking up are miracles and if you doubt this affirmation, I hope that you will agree with me by the time you finish reading this article.
This miracle could and probably should also extend to cover every living thing, after all, the Psalmist declares in chapter 150 verse 6: Let everything that has breath praise the Lord… This verse stuck in my mind from the title song of Ron Kenolly’s album, Lift Him Up!, which I discovered shortly after I got born again. I loved it so much that I used to play it a lot and, as can be expected, ended up memorizing most of the lyrics of the songs.
Many us take this wonderful experience of sleeping and waking for granted, forgetting to thank God for rest in sleep and the refreshing on awakening. But in all fairness to me, I have been aware of the wonder for a very long time… I’d say as far back as my secondary school days – although I was still ignorant of its true significance and Source.
I remember a time when I could only express my wonder on waking up with some words in a poem by Wole Soyinka. It goes … I have bobbed up bellywise from stream of sleep and no cock crow. Having lived in cities most of my life, it is indeed rare to be woken up by cock crow. I thank God who has filed my heart and mind with new words to appreciate His wonderful works.
Just to digress a bit, isn’t it a bit strange that the expression, bobbing up bellywise was used to describe an awakening to life in the morning? As alliterations go, literary scholars no doubt have every reason to consider that phrase an excellent example. And I obviously once rated it highly enough for it to have been the first thing to pop into my mind on waking up for many years! Nevertheless, common sense now tells me that those words are very inadequate in that context. In case you have not noticed, the imagery of a dead fish is in stark contradiction to what the writer was trying to communicate. And just in case you still don’t get my point, let me break it down for you: only dead fish bob up bellywise! Why on earth would anyone use something that symbolizes death to describe the experience of renewed life? This is a clear proof that a human perspective of reality and creativity are often limited, even distorted, and by extension, can go wild and crazy. Only the acknowledgement of God can reorient human thoughts.
And then again, perhaps this should not surprise us since the writer is said to be an atheist and is therefore most unlikely to factor in the Creator in this amazing and unending cycle of rest and renewal. In all fairness though, I feel I should point out that I still do enjoy the writings of Professor Wole Soyinka, especially those that not only entertain, bu also carry a strong and positive message. Take his play, The Trials of Brother Jero, one of his very first writings at the young age of 26 years. In that work, he not only expertly captured the mal-essence of a false prophet, but he also demonstrated excellent observation skills, an irresistible sense of humour, and a masterful control of the English language, as he regales us with the desperate attempts of a foolish man to make himself a god to gullible folks, eager to shirk their responsibilities in exchange for rapid results. And to think that many such false prophets still successfully use similar ploys to draw a following today!
Here is a timely warning from our Lord to all manipulators and their supporters out there: If the blind leads the blind… both will end up falling into a pit (Matthew 5:14). And just to clarify, that would be pit of hell! Revelations chapter 11 clearly states in verses 17-18 that the false prophet’s reward awaits him in the lake of fire of hell and those who follow them will not be spared. No wonder the Bible proverb declares to us that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.
I thank God that since I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Saviour, I now know to Whom the Glory and Honour and Power and Majesty belongs. And the older I get, the more I relish and hug the wonderful experience of sleeping and waking closer to my heart. My waking moments are now full of wonder, thanksgiving and meditation which I like compare to that of Mary who “hid these words in her heart; she thought about them much… If I am still not making much sense to you at this point, I invite you to please contemplate this wonderful reality of sleeping and waking with me …
To remain alive, we have to breathe in air. Most of us generally do not know what makes up the air we breathe, nor where it comes from, and how it flows. Neither do we give much thought to our reflex to inhale oxygen since it comes so naturally to us. The only time we are ever likely to give it a thought is when that reflex is interrupted. And even when asleep and, by all intents and purposes, dead to the world, we continue breathing automatically!! Should either ever be interrupted for as little as 4 to 6 minutes, we are literally and scientifically dead!! Can anyone seriously believe that this recurrent miraculous event just happens by chance? Or worse still, that he or she has control over it? Animals, who also breathe, can be excused from giving this a thought, but no right-thinking human being should be. And to make matters worse, it would seem that people who do not believe in the Creator God think nobody is in control of even this!
As for me, I fully subscribe to the Apostles’’ Creed which goes: I believe in God, the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried; he descended into hell; on the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty; from there he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic (Universal Church, NOT Roman catholic!!) the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen!
Let me however point out here that it makes me cringe to hear some people, in their religious zeal and fervor, feel they need to bring up the fact that others sleep and do not wake up, to justify the need for thanksgiving. I have always found this to be a great dampener to what should be spontaneous and joyful worship in spirit and in truth. To my mind, a matter of sorrow for some, is an inappropriate way to stir up the spirit of praise in the children of God for whom praise and thanksgiving should be like breathing air. It is therefore with great pleasure that I share with you below, the first two stanzas of one of the songs that now pop into my mind when I wake up in the morning:
- New every morning is the love our waking and uprising proves
Through sleep and darkness safely brought, restored to life and power and thought.
- New mercies each returning day hover around us as we pray,
New perils past, new sins forgiven, new thoughts of God, new hopes of heaven.
The number of stanzas range from 5-7 depending on the version you find. But whatever the length, this song makes a lovely prayer. If you are interested, you can google New every morning to search for it. You’ll get as many versions as you wish. I took the trouble to search for the writer of the lyrics of this wonderful song and this is what I discovered. The original writer is John Keble, the son of a Gloucester Vicar. He was born at Fairford, Gloucestershire, on April 25, 1792 and lived to the ripe old age of 74. He attended Oxford. At the age of 14, he won a Scholarship at Corpus Christi College, and at 18, he obtained a Double First Class. He was the second person ever to achieve such an academic feat. At only 19 years old, he was elected a Fellow of Oriel, a very great honour! And in the same year, he won the University Prizes both for the English and Latin Essays.
I felt compelled to share the above information for several reasons. First, to point out that here was as highly accomplished and renowned scholar, if not more than the writer of the words of the poem I first mentioned, and yet a true and devoted worshipper of Jesus Christ. This clearly dispels the arguments of the arrogant that only dumb people believe in God. Secondly, I always find it exciting to think that I share the Eternal Truth, not only with those who wrote the Bible, but with every true believer from thousands of centuries ago! He is a believer who lived several centuries ago, who not only shares the same wonder that I experience at waking up today, but also captured it so beautifully, and ascribes it to the Only True God Who is the Same Yesterday, Today and Forever whom I also worship today! Give me a gifted and intelligent man with the fear of God any day.
Thirdly, the writer left a wonderful legacy of the Truth for future generations and it is encouraging to know that his work has reached and blessed so many millions all over the world even till today, and will probably continue to do so till our Lord comes to take His Church. This is a great challenge for every follower of Christ, myself included.
Finally, it makes me long even more for the Fellowship in Heaven where simple illiterates gather together with gifted geniuses in the Presence of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ without any complex. I tell you, the experience is certainly going to be out of this world! – Pun intended ☺. Don’t miss it!
