Episode Details

SleepinessI’ve noticed that I used to have more energy when I was younger. As I have approached the end of my thirties, I’ve needed to be much more intentional about keeping my energy levels up. This has, of course, something also to do with the fact that I have four small children who, at various points, have caused sleep to be a challenge in my householdThrough the wisdom of others, I have learned that there are many things one can do to help get better sleep and to be more wakeful during the day: waiting an hour or so before drinking coffee in the morning to let the body’s cortisol levels spike naturally and then using caffeine after that to sustain alertness; not having caffeine after about 10am so that it is entirely out of the system by bedtime; regular exercise in the morning; not eating many carbs during the day to lower glucose levels and thereby avoiding energy crashes; going outside when the sun is rising to set the body’s circadian rhythm properly; having cold showers to produce adrenaline and heighten alertness; in the evening, not looking at screens after 8pm and keeping lighting low to mimic the effect of the setting sunThere are probably a couple of other things I could name here but you’re probably wondering why I’m saying all of this. The reason is that I want to make the point that, to wake up physically, it’s often the case that quite a lot of effort, thought and techniques are needed. You can’t just expect to do the same old things without thinking about it and feel full of energy. And sometimes if you change something it can have transformational effects.I am not a doctor or a scientist, so please seek out proper expert advice before following any of mine. But I am a priest, and I see significant analogies between bodily health and the health of the soul. The body is naturally sleepy and devoid of energy in all sorts of circumstances and the same is true of our souls.And we see this almost perverse sleepiness in the story of the Transfiguration. We’re told that Christ took Peter, James and John up on the mountain to pray. Consider here that shortly before this Jesus had fed five thousand people with a few loaves and fish and that Peter had confessed Jesus to be the Messiah. You would have thought they would be excited to be on the mountain praying with him, not least because he chose those three to be a kind of special inner circle. And yet, we are told that that they were heavy with sleep.Before we judge them too harshly, let’s recognise that in the disciples we often see a picture of ourselves. It is interesting when you look at the original Greek description of their sleepiness. We are told that they are weighed down by hypos, which is where we get our words “hypnotism” and “hypnotise”.We can of course be physically too tired to engage in the spiritual life, but it is also true that we can be hypnotised, meaning that we are so dazzled and distracted by the comforts and material advantages of the modern world that we simply have no inclination or desire to pray or to cultivate our own souls. We are asleep. And the sad reality is that the vast majority of people in our culture live and die like this. They may be physically awake. They may even by intellectually awake. But they are spiritually dead. And, like a still-born child, they simply never wake up to the real world.Waking UpWe are not only a physical body with an intellectual mind but we are also a soul. There is a spiritual part of us that is created and (we hope) destined for eternal union with God in Christ. Many people exercise the body; many people exercise the mind. But do we spend the same kind of energy attending to our souls, to the spiritual part of ourselves?Lent begins in three days: How do you feel about it? Are you excited? Are you dreading it? Maybe you don’t know enough about it yet? Perhaps you are indifferent and you intend simply to ignore it? I want to suggest to you that Lent gives all of us an opportunity to cultivate in an in