1 The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul.
[Jesus] "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest."
" 30The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught. 31Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, [Jesus] "Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest." So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place."
Thought from Pastor J. ~ 1st I'm not good at this myself. 2nd Teenagers can stop the Jekyl & Hyde effects of sleep deprivation if they'd just understand how they're made! Most of you spend countless droning hours on the internet (in fact, it may be 1 AM as you are reading this) every weekend and throughout the week. You can't get up in the morning or your parents bark at you for sleeping in until 2 PM on Saturday. We also live in a culture (adults too) that stresses more work in less time. What happens is that our body starts to bark back! Well guess what, the science of God created us and the Word of God reminds us of that fact. Yet for those who think that's all wash... here's an article from THE OREGONIAN posted by Jason Quick January 11, 2009
The scene was last month in Boston, at the end of a practice. [NBA's Portland Trailblazers] Head Coach Nate McMillan had huddled the team and was delivering his usual day-before-a-game speech. Only this time, his speech had a catch. Instead of the typical "get-to-bed-early" advice, McMillan encouraged his players to stay up late. Really late. "He was like, 'You all go out, curfew is 2 a.m.,'" LaMarcus Aldridge said. "We all had to laugh."
By then, the players understood McMillan's reasoning. He wanted the team to stay up late in order to keep their bodies, and sleep patterns, on Portland time. It was all part of the Blazers' new approach to how they travel, and more specifically, how they sleep when they travel. Flight departures were altered. Morning shootarounds canceled. Curfews relaxed. All so the Blazers players could get better sleep.
At the seed of the changes was Dr. Charles Czeisler, a gray-haired professor who works at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital and heads Harvard Medical School's Division of Sleep Medicine. Czeisler, who has also worked with NASA astronauts and the U.S. Olympic Committee, stresses the importance of getting enough sleep each night and keeping the body's internal clocks in sync by maintaining consistent sleep patterns. Inside the Blazers locker room, he has become known simply as "The Sleep Doctor."
"I think it has done wonders for our team," Brandon Roy said.
After going 7-14 last season in games played two or more time zones away, the Blazers are 7-2 this season heading into this week's four-game trip that starts Monday in Chicago and continues through Philadelphia, New Jersey and Charlotte.
"Sleep can provide a tactical advantage, and it is largely unrecognized in sports," Dr. Czeisler said.
The problem, according to the players, was that the departure often followed a home game the night before, which usually keeps the players awake until at least 2 a.m. To catch the morning flight, the players would often get only three hours sleep before they had to wake, pack and get to the airport. The players would instantly fall asleep on the plane, ignoring the need to eat both breakfast and lunch. When they arrived in the east for practice, they were not only tired and irritable, they were hungry.
The first change was moving the team's departure from Portland from 8 a.m. to noon. This allowed the players the chance to attain 8 hours of sleep after the previous night's home game against Minnesota. Team staff noticed a change immediately. The players were lively as they boarded Blazer One, the team's private jet, at Portland International Airport. They ate. And they interacted with each other.
"In the first place, I like to sleep in, so I loved it," Travis Outlaw said. "But you could just tell a difference on the plane. Everyone seemed more ready for the day. Instead of everyone not talking and saying they were going to sleep, you saw everybody laughing and joking."
It was the simplest way to incorporate Czeisler's theory of maintaining the body's circadian rhythms, which essentially resets the body's processes through its own internal clock. By staying on the same sleep cycle, the body would remain balanced.
"This is a relatively simple way to take advantage of their talent to the fullest," Czeisler said. "In the same way the team needs to stay in sync with each other on the court, they need to be in sync internally and physiologically, in order to perform."
Said Blazers player Lamarcus Aldridge, later: "We're young, baby. We'll do anything if it's going to help us win."
[Pastor J. 1/26/09] We all intrinsically desire peace & rest. It pervades our physical, emotional, and spiritual longings. We unfortunately have often become so turned off by spiritual representatives that we try and focus that search and place our hope in the political and intellectual. Well, you won't ever find peace in the political arena (historically proven). The intellectual on the other hand is the desire to pursue... but pursue what? I mean... doesn't that need to be identified. In fact, go ahead and pursue disproving something but at least you've got a focus... and you may be shocked at the proof you find!?!?
