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Giving Thanks for Arising from Sleep

by Doug Floyd

“Today I arise and thank you Father for calling me from the tomb of sleep yet
again to live in the ever-increasing light of resurrection.”

There came a time in my life when I ran out of prayer. I had used up all my
words. I wanted to cry out to God, but the words stuck. Sounds fell from my
mouth like stones dropping into a dry well.

I’m sure this sounds a bit crazy, but as I tried to pray there were no words.
Sometimes cries, moans, or wordless songs ascended from my lips.

In this desert of prayer, I picked up an Christian prayer book and began reading
morning prayers aloud each day. In the weeks, months and even years ahead,
ancient words rooted in Scripture shaped my cries before God. Basil the Great,
Macarius, Ephraim and other Christians from the early centuries of faith taught
me to pray again.

In their simple morning prayers to God, I noticed a pattern. Many of their morning
prayers began with the phrase “Arising from sleep.” They consistently connected
the idea of resurrection to arising from sleep. Sleep seems to mean both the
night of sleep, the sleep of sin that kept me blind to God, and even the sleep of
this life in light of eternity.

Every morning, these ancient Christians reminded me that I am waking in light of


eternity. So every morning is like a day of resurrection, a day of celebration, a
day to join the ever worshipping choirs of angels proclaiming the glory of God. In
this rhythm of prayer, I began to realize that I am truly waking from glory to glory.

The Father calls us forth into life and into life and into life. The wonder His love
continually opens before us in people and places where we dwell. Each new day
really is a new day, really is the day of salvation. Each day we awake in light of
the Day of the Lord.

In the simplicity of these “rising prayers” I began to notice the hand of the Father
who had been calling, waking, leading me into life long before I had any sense of
His love, His faithfulness, His ever watchful Spirit leading me forward into the
fullness of His Risen Son.

Now I as look back over the last few years, I am aware of encounters, events,
and experiences that seem like conversion experiences, like resurrections. The
morning I watched the sun rise over the dark water, I experienced the start of a
new day, and a New Day.

The stories and songs of the early Celtic Christians awoke me to the simplicity of
uplifted hands in ceaseless prays. Their world centered in the bread and cup of
communion Jesus serves His disciples. And in this simple meal, we discover that
all of life is rooted in thanksgiving. So I join them in realizing that the place where
I am standing is holy, yet I also join them in longing for the place of my
resurrection.

After taking a year of creative thinking classes in graduate school, I realized


something happened. During the weeks and months of the previous year, I had
been changed. I woke up. I stepped into a freedom and joy that felt like entering
childhood all over again. I had been converted into a child and was prepared to
enter the kingdom of God.

Reading G.K. Chesterton’s biography of Thomas Aquinas, I felt the ground shake
beneath my feet. Not because it was dissipating but because it seemed like for
the first time in my life, I was walking on real ground, in a real world that the
Father had created in love for His children. What could I do? Only fall to my
knees in praise.

Each day I arise, I arise to new wonder. I arise to a new world of real people and
real things. This real world is not an empty space, but all things have been
created in and through the Word of God, and all things are reconciled through the
Word

In this real world of real trees and real flowers and real beauty, I’ve experienced
real suffering. At times, the suffering felt like death. But in the dying, I have
encountered the voice of the God who raises the dead. He creates and sustains
all things through His Word, Jesus Christ.

In Christ, I’ve encountered a love that passes my reason or my capacity to


explain or defend. I simply rest in the faithful love of a God I cannot grasp, but
who grasps me, shapes me, breathes into me, and calls me forth into life.

On this day of thanks, I lift up a voice of rejoicing, joining the prayers of my


brothers and sisters across time, who’ve encountered the loving Father in the
Son by the power of His Spirit poured out on us.

In the words of Basil the Great,


“As I rise from sleep I thank Thee, O Holy Trinity, for through Thy great goodness and
patience Thou wast not angered with me, an idler and sinner, nor hast Thou destroyed
me in my sins, but hast shown Thy usual love for men, and when I was prostrate in
despair, Thou hast raised me to keep the morning watch and glorify Thy power. And
now enlighten my mind's eye and open my mouth to study Thy words and understand
Thy commandments and do Thy will and sing to Thee in heartfelt adoration and praise
Thy Most Holy Name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, now and ever, and to the ages of
ages. Amen.

O come let us worship God our King.

O come let us worship and fall down before Christ our King and our God.

O come let us worship and fall down before Christ Himself, our King and our God.”

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