Insomnia

Last night I had Insomnia. It's something that I've had on and off over the past seven years. It first started in my first year of university. I would lay in bed restless for hours before managing two or three hours of sleep.

I grew out of that.

It has since returned. It comes when I am anxious, and I am anxious a lot lately. Last night I slept at 11pm, woke at 1am, and didn't fall to sleep again until 5am, finally waking for work at 7am.

So what to do at 1am on a week night? This isn't a huge city. We don't have all night cafe's (however, I'm sure that will not be the wisest move considering the goal is to fall asleep). So, I found my answer in Youtube. Youtube provided me with 15 live songs from Gipsy Kings, and a Japanese foot massage. Again, not the wisest move. Rumba Flamenco guitar does not put oneself to sleep.

So, here I am. A client to service, no sleep, and Volare running through my mind.

Prayer of St Francis

"Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;
Where there is hatred let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is despair, light;
And where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that
I may not so much seek
To be consoled, as to console;
To be understood, as to understand;
To be loved, as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive,
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
And it is in dying that we are born again to eternal life."

- St Francis of Assisi

The wisdom of Ghandi

"You Christians look after a document containing enough dynamite to blow all civilisation to pieces, turn the world upside down, and bring peace to a battle-torn planet. But you treat it as though it is nothing more than a piece of good literature."

- Mohandas Ghandi

God is everywhere

God is omnipresent.

As God was with us from our conceptions, knitting us together in the safe place of our mothers wombs, God was also with the woman in our workplace who scolds you to keep your religious comments to yourself, and advocates a womans 'right' to abortion.

As we feel God call in our deep, "here I am", causing wonder and amazement, causing doubts about worldly values and ambitions, God is also with our company CEO's, calling in their deep, "here I am", prodding them to question their worldy values and ambitions.

As God says to His children, the seed of Abraham, those under the covenant, bound to Him by Christ, "I know the plans that I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future.", God is also with each Aboriginal, standing homeless in an inner-city park, drinking casks of wine, yelling profanities at eachother, and harrassing passers-by for a dollar, He is desiring for them to hear "I know the plans that I have for you". Desiring each one of them to be bound to Him by Christ.

As God is with you, as you cry and plead for His forgiveness for your sin, your sin of lust, your sin of hatred, your sin of lying, and God says "the day of Grace is here", and He looks at His son, nailed to a cross, gasping for air, unrecogniseable due to the punishment inflicted on him, the hatred directed at him, the sin covering him, shame weighing heavily on him, and we receive that forgiveness with humility and joy, knowing that our Father, our Daddy, has not thrown us onto the streets, out of His family, so does God look at the Jihadi, the one who burns the church and rapes the kaffir, the one who kills the infidel, and seeks to destroy us and our way, and says "the day of Grace is here", as He looks at His son, nailed spread eagle and naked to a cross, with their sin covering him.

As God walks in front of you, calling you forward, but doesn't run off and leave you when you cannot catch up. And as He walks along side you, to comfort you and pick you up when you fall. And as Christ is ready and willing to sit with you, to talk it over with you, and to lovingly discipline you when you do wrong, because you are His child, and all children need discipline. And to remind you that you are deeply loved, and there is a better way of life if you look beyond yourself, so God is also walking in front of your wife to guide, along side your spouse to comfort and pick them up, sitting with your spouse to talk and to discipline, they are His child, they are deeply loved, and there is a blessed life as your spouse looks beyond themself.

God is ominpresent.

He is fully with you, with the totality of His love on you, and He is fully with your neighbour, with the totality of His love on them. He loves us individually, as one who is with us individually, and He loves us collectively, as one who is with us collectively and transends all. He is with each of us, in each of us, alongside each of us, and He transends each of us, so we know that Him, our hope, and their hope, is able to do more - much more - than one who is only man.