Song for Sunday: In the middle of the night...

I'm not sure why I felt like choosing this song today. Maybe it is because Big Sister has been waking up in the wee hours of the morning nearly every night this week- I think her bladder shrunk.

Or maybe it is because we are reading Searching for God Knows What by Donald Miller with our Sunday school class. We've been talking about how our relationship with God is supposed to be an epic story, unfolding in poetry and prose and any other artform imaginable, rather than being reduced to bullet points of belief or checklists of behaviors or step-by-step instructions to get from point A to point B. I mean, if there were simply a list or two to follow, wouldn't God have included them in the Bible?

Instead He speaks in stories and invites us to pull up a cushion, listen, learn and abide. I think that means that on this side of heaven, we'll always be searching for more, plodding along in our story, striving for more of God's goodness & glory...

Today we talked about Adam & Eve, and what it means when it says they realized they were naked. Imagine the complete security they had in their identity when they were in communion with God, and then imagine the complete void they would have felt when that was taken away- when they chose to separate themselves from God. It makes sense that we've been searching for that completeness ever since... and that's why I like this song.

River of Dreams
by Billy Joel

In the middle of the night

I go walking in my sleep
From the mountains of faith
To the river so deep

I must be lookin' for something
Something sacred I lost
But the river is wide
And it's too hard to cross

Even though I know the river is wide
I walk down every evening and stand on the shore
I try to cross to the opposite side
So I can finally find what I've been looking for

In the middle of the night
I go walking in my sleep
Through the valley of fear
To a river so deep

I've been searching for something
Taken out of my soul
Something I'd never lose
Something somebody stole

I don't know why I go walking at night
But now I'm tired and I don't want to walk anymore
I hope it doesn't take the rest of my life
Until I find what it is I've been looking for


In the middle of the night
I go walking in my sleep
Through the jungle of doubt
To the river so deep

I know I'm searching for something
Something so undefined
That it can only be seen
By the eyes of the blind
In the middle of the night

I’m not sure about a life after this
God knows I've never been a spiritual man
Baptized by the fire, I wade into the river
That is runnin' through the promised land

In the middle of the night
I go walking in my sleep
Through the desert of truth
To the river so deep
We all end in the ocean
We all start in the streams
We're all carried along
By the river of dreams
In the middle of the night