Sept 13, 2025 – Wake Up
When I found myself awake just before 5am (on a Saturday morning), I began thinking through why I was awake, but I had no idea at first. It certainly wasn’t because I felt well-rested from enough sleep and I’m beginning to think that it also may not have been God waking me up to write my blog as I’ve been assuming for months (it does work in my favor to get on up and write though). I was just all of a sudden awake, as I had been several other times during the night, but this time I didn’t change positions and go back to sleep. I noticed that my head and the left side of my chest was hurting (still is) and I had to go to the bathroom. It got me to thinking about talking with the sleep study rep yesterday and when she said there are no notes from my referring doctor about recurring sleep issues (which could affect insurance approval for the sleep test). I did bring it up to him in the fall of 2022, but my insurance at the time wouldn’t cover any of the costs so I canceled the fairly expensive study. My new insurance covers it – 80% of it at least and that’s fair in my opinion.
I wonder how many people have sleep issues and don’t bring them up to their doctors and then end up with other related issues (like heart) that could have been prevented. Since I was up anyway, I shared these thoughts in an email to the sleep study rep. It probably won’t provide any sway to insurance companies like my old one, but I still feel compelled to mention it – to her and now in this blog just in case it might help someone. I wonder how many doctors don’t have notes for patients about sleep issues and yet end up sending them for testing, years past when they should have, because symptoms have gotten so much worse.
I bet most patients didn’t realize those symptoms had anything to do with sleep issues. And, I bet they didn’t tell their doctors about those related symptoms when they first started happening. They, like me, probably just dealt with them. I went for quite a while having trouble getting to sleep when I first got in bed at night before I mentioned it to my doctor. When he heard that I was taking my thyroid meds at night, he said that was the culprit. That was before I even went to sleep. My current issues are during the night. I didn’t know (and even when I finally heard about it I forgot) that startling awake with sleep apnea is very hard on the heart. My father ended up with a pacemaker before he finally got tested for sleep apnea.
After my mother’s death, I became more aware of and responsible for my father’s health. If I hadn’t gone through the years of his snoring when we were in hotels and then getting him tested for sleep apnea, like him I’d have thought I’d just woken up to go to the bathroom this morning (and for years prior). We kept telling my father to drink the water during the day that we were always trying to get him to drink, and not play catch up at night. I’ve tried to be careful about that as well, but because of his experience, I know, or think, that it isn’t my bladder waking me up. I think when my father (and I) would stop breathing, it woke the bladder up. But still, even with my father’s experience, for years I thought it was just aging that was getting me up during the night to go to the bathroom (sometimes multiple times).
I wonder how many doctors have pages of notes dealing with bladder and heart issues with their patients before zeroing in on possible sleep problems. As I was looking through my medical notebook to see when I’d had my heart tests (to fill in the blank on page 3 of 9 of the intake forms), I noticed how many entries there are about chest pains…which I’m still having right now…and I’m still yawning at 6:30am, but very awake. I see a nap in my future (which is apparently another potential sign of sleep disturbances).
As I picked up the first devotion book in the bag beside my chair, I figured the topic would lean into sleep somehow, but Utmost takes me back to what and who is still on so many hearts and minds, Charlie Kirk, and his widow, Erika’s, eloquent and heart-felt address to the world last night. The verse for today’s devotion is John 17:4 – “I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do.” Charlie, like Christ, finished the work he was given to do here on earth. How amazing that Erika was able to speak this soon after such a heart-breaking loss. Her work continues….
Chambers writes, “There are very few crises in life, the great crisis is the surrender of the will….’If you would be My disciple, give up your right to yourself to Me.’ Then the remainder of the life is nothing but the manifestation of this surrender….We do not need to care what our circumstances are, Jesus is amply sufficient.”
Power speaks to Erika’s message last night as well. She put her (and our) earthly and spiritual enemies on notice that they are wrong if they thought they shut down Charlie’s message. They’ve woken up a powerful movement. “The devil is always ready to prevent the birth of any good thing God tries to do in us or through us….However, if you know this ahead of time, you can press through the opposition and see God’s good will come to pass in your life.” May it be so for Erika and for all who will carry on the message of Turning Point which was birthed by Charlie Kirk.
I think I may have mentioned that the young man I dated during the fall of my senior year in high school (Richard was in his 3rd year at UVa), died in a plane crash just after the new year (1983). I, and a sweet handful of his friends, spoke at his memorial service and I remember sitting next to a guy afterward who told me he wanted to know more about Christ or that maybe he had accepted Christ because of the example of Richard’s life. I’ll have to check my journal for the specifics. Anyway, my reaction was not Christ-like at first, at least not inwardly. Outwardly, I told him what most any Christian at least two steps ahead of the person would say after a declaration like that, but inwardly I questioned God about why He couldn’t have found another way for that guy to find his salvation. God is ok with our questions. His ways are not ours and He works good from all situations for those who believe (Romans 8:28, my favorite verse, as I’m sure I’ve mentioned).
JC – This one is directed at me: “Come to Me and rest. [I’m getting very tired.] Give your mind a break from its habitual judging….When you become preoccupied with passing judgment, you usurp My role….Allow Me to have My way in your life….The intimacy I offer you is not an invitation to act as if you were My equal. Worship Me as King of kings while walking hand in hand with Me down the path of life.”
Max – “The promise of Isaiah 43 is yours to cherish. [I’ll let you pause to look up verses 1-3 and 5 rather than type them out for you. I think sometimes we need the act of opening our Bibles rather than being spoon-fed with the words typed out for us – or at least I do.] Don’t try to weather the storms of life alone. Row the boat and bail the water, but above all bid Christ to enter your sinking craft. Believe that you are never alone….”
JA – “Your life is a precious gift from Me. Open your hands and your heart to receive this day gratefully….look for signs of My abiding Presence….your physical life is an amazing gift, but your spiritual life is a treasure of infinite value!”
Streams – Exodus 34:2 – “In the morning…come up….Present yourself to me there on top of the mountain.” I’m here on the top of Shades Mountain with the sun rising and God offering me the gift of another day. Cowman quotes Joseph Parker, “Each morning begun so well on the mountain will make me strong and glad the rest of the day!”
Prevail 256 – “The guards arrived with blazing torches….He stepped forward to meet them. Nobody took His life. He freely gave it….As soon as He uttered the words ‘I am He,’ the power of the Godhead burst forth from Him and knocked the soldiers off their feet! It’s estimated that as many as six hundred soldiers were on the scene that night to arrest Jesus.” Can you imagine? 600 soldiers falling when Jesus said 3 words?! “We in our finite minds cannot fathom what we’ve gained because we have Jesus, but this we know: He is our King. And there is none like Him.”
