I am an old man when it comes to sleeping. Normally you will find me passed out on the couch if it is past 9 pm and I am watching a movie. Typically I like to be in bed by 9:30 pm so I can read a bit before falling asleep. The thought of doing an all nighter for anything never really crosses my mind. In college I pulled it off once and that was to get Gamecock football tickets. I distinctly remember the next day being miserable as I dragged my body from one class to the next only to sleep through it….I was too stubborn to skip class.
A couple years out of college I got roped into doing an all nighter at church for middle/high schooler event. I desired to beat the 2 am crash so I drank all the coffee I could find starting at 9 pm and was determined to outlast all of the kids and other volunteers. After hand fulls of sugar candy and pizza I was on cloud 9 of bouncing off the walls, couldn’t sit still and was generally more excited about the games being played than the kids were. The night even called for watching Monsters University at 3 am and I stayed awake for the entire thing. I was successful in accomplishing my task of staying awake but the following day was absolutely miserable. I felt hungover and was hurting real bad for a couple days.
Month 2 in Malawi came around and our ministry contact had this great idea that a team does an all night prayer every night. I thought, “great, I wonder how much coffee it will take for me to stay up all night in the middle of nowhere Malawi praying in a room with only one light bulb.” At the time I figured it would take quite a few, so I started to indulge after dinner. Prayer was solid throughout the night but I still felt terrible the following day.
I started to wonder, whoever thought praying all night was a good idea either: A) has never done it or B) never had to be productive the next day. Then God spoke to me and said, “less is more, depend on me.”
Month 4 in Estonia rolled around and my team decided to do an all night pray. Everyone started loading up on candy, treats, and coffee to make it through the night. I choose to take one bottle of water and one bag of granola. This night of prayer went extremely well for me and I remained alert throughout the night. The next day I took a couple hour nap in the morning but for the most part felt pretty good.
I was beside myself, “wow God, that worked out really nicely. thanks for the tip – less of me, more of you.”
Beginning of month 7 in Mongolia our contact wanted us to do an all squad prayer night at his church before going out to our specific ministries. The day this was suppose to happen I kind of forgot so here was my diet for the day: chocolate oatmeal for breakfast, chocolate Cinnabon for lunch, chocolate bar for dinner, and about 1 liter of water all day. I previously felt convicted to do my next all night prayer without food or caffeine. Going into the night I realized whatever was going to happen was going to be all God and none of me considering I filled myself on nutritional trash all day.
The schedule for the night was to pray/worship for a couple hours then rest for 2 hours and repeat until 7 am. I was locked into God’s presence the first prayer session then the break hit. It was hard not to give into a peaceful nap before resuming but I knew I did not want to: one stop the experience I was having; two I knew nothing good will come of me trying to nap from 10pm to midnight….just spelled disaster to me.
Come 7 am the next day I felt on top of the world! It was as if I just woke from sleeping like a rock for 8 hours. There was no pain, no sleepiness in my eyes, absolutely nothing. A night full of depending on God to provide the strength and energy to bring Him glory. Absolutely ridiculous how He came through on His word and how much I grew through the experience!
Later that day we took a 6 hour bus ride out to the middle of nowhere Mongolia and I thought, “surely I will pass out on this bus and catch up on sleep.” Nope. Nadda. Nothing. I was fully alert and just continue to praise Him. I didn’t go to sleep until that night like everyone else. Unreal.
Less of me and MORE of Him was a major takeaway from this experience. Continuing to align myself with Him. Press into God more and less physical desires. Differentiate between the wants of my flesh and needs of my spirit.
