The Sleep Study

I lay on my back, adjusting the scratchy hospital blankets.  Wires ran up and down my pajamas.  Countless electrodes were plastered to my body at the ends of each wire.  The wires were connected by a nurse to a box that lay under my pillow.

When she was done the nurse passed along some simple instructions: “Try to sleep,” she said, then turned out the light and closed the door. 

Sleep was not forthcoming.

Ironically a sleep lab at the hospital is the hardest place to catch any shuteye.  Maybe it was the sheets.  Maybe it was the wires snaking across my face.  Or maybe it was the fact that every move I made was being recorded on camera. On second thought, it must be all three.

It is weird knowing that someone can watch you while you sleep – exposed – vulnerable.  But what is even creepier is that all those little electrodes can tell the study observers much more than meets the eye.  They can tell how I’m breathing, if my eyes are moving left or right, if they are open or closed, if my toes are pointed, if my legs are moving.  There is absolutely no privacy at a sleep study.

Which got me thinking about how much I value my privacy. 

What if our lives were always on camera?  How would we act?  If there were electrodes hooked up to my brain and people could see what I was thinking, would I be pleased with that situation?  I can tell you right now that the answer is, No!

And yet God sees.  We forget that most of the time, don’t we?  I do.

He sees what I do when nobody is around.  He hears those thoughts that I never speak.  God sees.  God hears.  Do we care?

We should.

Today marks the start of Holy Week.  We begin to count down the last days of Jesus’ life.  We will watch him betrayed, sentenced, beaten, crucified, and risen from the dead.  And the thing is, he did all that so we could be forgiven for our sins – even the ones nobody else but God sees.

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