Naps as Religious Practice

Rage against the Machine by catching some ZZZ's

Leonard Mcombe 1970

A while back, I published Cease Your Hurry: a poem begging myself and society to slow down.

I am a prophetess 
crying out through the buzzing algorithms
Halt! Cease your hurry. 
Call someone who has chosen to be in your life 
and BE in their life. 
Slow DOWN. 
Can’t you see the very thing 
your racing toward 
is the very thing 
you’re running from?
           - Cease Your Hurry (excerpt)

Over the last few years, I’ve started viewing rest as a resistance, a protest raging against the machine— or should I say, raging against the idea that humans are machines.

In Hunting the Divine Fox, Robert Capon writes at length about the vocabulary we use when describing humans, God, and creation. He takes issue with the way our language of the human mind has become one and the same as that of machines. While Capon’s concern in 1974 was the comparison of the human mind thinking as a machine “thinks”, my concern in 2024 is our expectation that human productivity matches that of machines. What do we expect from machines? Data and output. What do we expect from humans? We expect humans to work with machines in order to produce a profitable output.

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On Machines

Our fall from grace
began the day we 
called the mind a machine 
Reducing our productions to production
      our masterpieces to dollar signs 
      our diversities problems to be solved
Told our inquiries, suspicions, and questions 
      they must have answers
      and if no answers, 
      ours is the failure

Machines
packaged and reduced
inspected by psychiatrists through screens 

Machines
hardwired and chock full 
of viruses

Machines making machines
and why wouldn’t we?
For a mind is a terrible 
thing to waste.

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As a person who is captivated by the beauty of Jesus, I’m weary of what has become the spiritualization of productivity. Want to be a great Jesus follower? Then do more! Some turn the words of Jesus into guilt trips aimed at propelling you to action. Interesting. People took much issue with Jesus during his time because of his lack of productivity. He did not start a business, overthrow an empire, or work to gain a following. He made friends, the kind we’d avoid at the grocery store. He ate meals. He went on long walks. He spent much time philosophizing with women. He worked, of course, but his flavor of work was not well accepted by others.

When we are bombarded by messaging in every sphere of life to do more, it is no wonder we start to believe doing is the key to success in all of life. There is no avoiding the need to work and of course we want to do well in all facets of our lives, but we have taken it too far.

Here is where I find a better way and a deep exhale releasing from my soul. There is much in the Bible about production…of fruit. In these ancient scriptures, humans are not compared to an oil press (a machine of those times) but to a tree. Notice the distinction. Godliness follows the rhythms of the seasons. Fruit is the result of much unseen everydayness, endurance through dry seasons, pruning, reaching for the sun and the rain, and resting. You see, for the tree, fruit is its glory as much as rest is its glory. And eating and being blown by the wind and housing the lowly animals. Its beauty is in its existence. I’m relieved to be compared to a tree.

Enter: naps.

As an exercise of rest, of enjoying God, and remembering I am enjoyed by God, I treat a nap as prayer. I talk with God as I rest in God. Sleep is a great surrender. It’s an acceptance of our limitations and of our constant need.

Here’s my invitation: Join the resistance. Nap.

Or at least stop feeling guilty when you fall asleep during prayer. God welcomes your rest. You were created for it.

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Extras

Future by The New Respects [Spotify + Apple Music]

Can’t Explain This Love by Allen Stone [Spotify + Apple Music]

Stop & Listen Playlist my “thank you” for being here <3 [Apple Music + Spotify]