Sweetwater Presbyterian

Small in size, Large in Faith and Love

Devotion February 21, 2018

Greetings!
I’m a little sleep deprived.  You know when you are sleep deprived when you cry over sappy meme’s on Facebook (for those of you who are not Facebook users a meme is a picture with caption that is trying to make a point.  It usually is something that wouldn’t normally fit together or someone famous saying something they probably wouldn’t say) or over a sad song on Pandora (Pandora is a music service on the internet that plays your favorite songs) or simply because you feel the need to cry…. or you know you are sleep deprived because your eyes feel very heavy and it is not because a hypnotist is saying:  “You are getting very sleepy” or because you keep looking at the time to see if it is bedtime yet and it is only 1:00 in the afternoon….. 
Well I could go on - we all know that feeling of being sleep deprived and today is one of those days.  Now you may think that I am sleep deprived because I have been watching grandchildren over the last several days and that is certainly a reason to be sleep deprived for several reasons - one is because you don’t sleep well because you are watching someone else’s children and you want to be sure nothing goes wrong with them and so you just don’t sleep well because you have that one ear open all the time just in case there is a whimper from somewhere.  In this specific case grandchildren made me sleep deprived because the 5 month old is teething and the poor little guy is just miserable and I know there are a thousand remedies to ease the teething pain but nothing was working with this little child and so there were essential nighttime rockings and soothings contributing to sleep deprivation - not that I minded really but it still contributed to the current  absence of sleep situation.  
By the way, this is one of the questions I’m asking God when I get to heaven - why do teeth cause such a problem?  These poor little babies who don’t understand this pain in their mouths - teeth hurt coming in and coming out and then you have to do all that over again and often teeth hurt while they are still intact - but I digress…..
So what do I actually attribute this sleep deprivation to?  The Olympics.  “The Olympics?” you query, “Why the olympics?”.  
My favorite events of the Olympics are the figure skating events.  There are figure skating events throughout the 2 weeks of the Olympics and except for a few breaks of people sliding down hills really quickly, or people sliding ‘rocks’ slowly down a lane at other ‘rocks’ or people skiing and shooting guns and skiing and shooting guns and doing it over again several times - despite the occasional interruption of these activities, figure skating still reigns supreme in my Olympic watching extravaganza.   
Figure Skating has all the qualities you could want - athletic ability, artistry, good music, nifty costumes, interesting personalities, captivating back stories of all these competitors, couples….  It is all there.
So my question is this, with all the interest of ice skating (notice how I assume that because I favor ice skating everyone else does as well….) why is it that ice skating is not broadcasted until late in the evening so if I want to watch the skating competition to the bitter end it is midnight or later before I am able to turn off the TV and go to bed?  
Why don’t you record it I hear from those of you concerned about my lack of sleep - and my answer is this - I tried that but the problem is there is no time to watch what you have recorded because in between Olympic watching I have grandchildren around and I have to work and because there is always something new in the Olympic arena to watch so when would you watch what you have recorded?  I did try to record something and then record what I wanted to watch so I could fast forward through the commercials and I thought I could get it all watched but then I ended up staying up later than when I just stayed up to watch in the first place.
Whew!  What a conundrum!  Do I put up with the sleep deprivation knowing that it will abate after the Olympics are over or do I give up some olympic viewing only to find out who won through the news feed on my computer the next morning?
Well, I guess you can figure out that I chose option number one.  So until the Olympic Figure Skating is over, I guess I will just have to learn to be sleepy……
So here I am willing to sacrifice my sleep just to watch Ice Skating on television.  I am willing to put up with this feeling of emotional fatigue and a little physical achiness and these heavy eye lids to watch something that I could find out the results in 10 seconds if I waited til the next day.  
It made me consider that if I am willing to give up sleep for a sport, why is it so difficult to be willing to give up something for God?  If I can decide to give up something for something that in the scheme of things will make no absolute difference, why is it so hard to make a sacrifice for God who makes all the difference there is - who makes eternal difference….
That is what we all need to consider - we give up so much for sports and fun and other types of entertainment, but when it comes to giving up something for God we hesitate and make excuses and figure God understands….
Is there going to be a time when God says to me - you were willing to give up sleep for Ice Skating but you weren’t willing to give up time for me?  
Hmmmmmmm??

Amen!