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[Chrysostom]

You speak of never-ending late nights and a weariness that leaves you wondering why your son does not tire as you do. But tell me, is it not often so, that what we chase after for pleasure or ease becomes the very thing that steals our rest? The tongue tastes luxury, and then the belly curses it, bringing a sleep like death or a sleeplessness born of overindulgence. Your son, in his youthful energy, bends toward the earth like the young man strutting in the forum, priding himself on trifles while missing the wisdom of Heaven. Do not let your soul grow heavy with earthly vexations, as if mired in mud. You are a child of God, honored with spiritual anointing; why then cover your heart with the dust of worry over mail and money and the hour of sleep? These are passing shadows, and to complain of them endlessly is to walk the broad way, not the strait and narrow path that leads to life.

Would you not rather place around your son no amulet or scarlet thread, but the protection of the Cross? When you cry out for sleep and smooth days, you forget that Christ Himself said, “In the world ye shall have tribulation.” The Apostles went beyond all in hardships, yet they rejoiced. So these trials, the delayed assistance, the missing mail, the restlessness of your household, they are not signs of God’s absence. They are the very course in which He sets His rewards, holding them out as an emperor displays crowns before the race. Do not think the delay a curse; rather consider it a reprieve given for repentance and the gathering of spiritual fruit. Manasses, who filled Jerusalem with blood and pollution, washed away all through repentance. How much more can your daily fretting be transformed by turning your plea from “let him sleep” to “let us both find rest in You?”

You say you are tired of complaining. That very weariness is the Spirit’s call to lift your eyes. Be no longer like that thoughtless child who acts as if forsaken, but as a beloved and faithful child who knows she has a Father. Even as a husband and wife are joined into one flesh with their offspring, so we are one flesh with Christ by participation. Cleave to Him in your sorrow, and these earthly disquietudes will shrink to their true size. Commend your son to the Lord, not with anxious commands, but with the quiet trust that He who shows greater works than we can fathom will strengthen what is weak. Prayer is not mere begging for daily comforts, but washing the stains of the soul with tears and works of mercy. So tonight, instead of seeking only a blanket of physical sleep, seek the blanket of His presence. Let the Cross be the doorpost of your heart, and whether your son sleeps early or late, whether the mail arrives or lingers, you will find that you have already begun to rest in the one unfailing Treasure.

 

[Silas]

The weight of sleepless nights and unrelenting days can wear the soul thin. You are not wrong to cry out about it. Scripture never promises a life free from distressing situations or financial strain. As a child of God, you face the same vexing problems anyone else does. Exhaustion, a difficult schedule, worrying about money and paperwork and missing mail, these are part of living in a fallen world, and feeling tired of it all is not a failure of faith. Your complaint is honest, and you bring it straight to Jesus, which is exactly where it belongs.

When your son refuses to sleep, it feels like the night will never end. A child left entirely to his own whims does bring weariness on a mother. But remember how much patience you have when teaching a little one to walk. You expect stumbles and falls. You do your best to steady him, yet there are times he will still go down. Training a child to rest, to yield to what is good for him, takes time and the same kind of patient endurance. Entrust those frustrating late hours to the Lord. Even Jacob, utterly spent, laid his head on a stone and, in his exhaustion, was given that dream of the ladder connecting earth to heaven. God met him in his tiredness. He meets you there too.

You ask why your son does not get tired of it. The heart of a child is a mystery, bound up with impulses he does not yet understand. But Jesus set a little child in the midst of his disciples and taught them something profound. The way up is down. Become as that child, humble and dependent, because the kingdom belongs to such. When you are weary beyond measure, that is the moment to lean entirely on the One who does not sleep. You cannot generate the strength to fix your circumstances, but Christ himself comes to indwell and sustain you. He is the true ladder. The infinite reached down to the finite so that you could have help that religion and self-effort can never supply.

Regarding the money and the assistance you are waiting for, it is easy to feel that financial relief would solve everything. Yet money often teaches a false lesson, that we can buy our way out of trouble or control outcomes. Its absence strips away that illusion and presses you closer to the God who provides. Your mail and your approval are in his hands, not in the capricious systems of this world. Do not misunderstand; it is not wrong to pray for a quick resolution. But if the answer is delayed, consider that the purpose may be to deepen your reliance on him, just as Hannah’s years of longing for a child prepared her to give that child entirely back to God.

Do not be surprised or discouraged that problems persist. You have no divine immunity from hardship. But you have an invitation: to give thanks not necessarily for the trial, but in it. You can thank him in the loss of sleep, in the uncertain finances, in the waiting. That is not pretending the pain is not real. It is recognizing that the most exciting event in history already happened. God took on human form in Bethlehem. A child was born, wrapped in cloth, and laid down to sleep in a manger, and his arrival secured redemption. Everything else, every need and every moment of peace, flows from that. So tonight, whether your son drifts off quickly or not, your soul can rest in the finished work of Jesus. He keeps his word, and he keeps you.