Got Insomnia? Try Prayer

When I go to bed at night, I fall asleep almost immediately and rarely have trouble sleeping through the night. Sometimes, though, I'll wake up and have trouble falling back asleep. Although I hate to admit it, if I start to pray, I'll usually fall back asleep pretty quickly. I feel sort of bad about it; I mean, here I am talking to God, and I fall asleep mid-sentence. But then again, maybe it's not such a bad thing; talking to God brings me the comfort and rest that I need.

Last night, my cell phone rang, waking me up at 10:35 (yes, I go to bed quite early). Now, it's rather unusual that my phone rings at home because we don't have a good signal out where I live. I knew that it had to be a student because everyone else that knows my number would be in bed asleep. I thought about just letting it ring, but I got up and answered anyway. Indeed, it was a student calling to inform me that he wouldn't be in class the following morning. The cellular signal was pretty bad, and the call was cut off pretty quickly, but before losing the signal completely, my student was able to tell me that he was in jail and would be there for three days. He mentioned his girlfriend (the mother of his baby son), and I heard the word "frustrated" and that was all. From what I could gather, some sort of domestic disturbance occured, and he's going to jail for it.

I know that this kid has been through a lot. His mom left when he was a baby because she was addicted to drugs; he just found his dad using cocaine; his relationship with his son's mother has been on the rocks, and he told me that he suspects that she's also using drugs. He works a regular job in addition to attending school so that he can provide good support for his son, and he's been a very good student--he writes very intelligent papers. He's a good kid, it seems, who is going through a really terrible time.

So last night's phone call was a little unsettling. I knew there was nothing I could do for him, so I got back into bed and tried to fall back asleep, realizing finally that I really needed to pray for this kid. It took nearly an hour of intermittent praying and dozing before I finally fell back into a sound and restful sleep. I guess he really needed somebody to pray for him last night, and God wouldn't let me sleep until it got done.