Sleeping Through the Storm

Over the last few months, as a means of getting in touch with, and making sense of my faith, I have been making my way through each of Mitch Albom’s books. I bought the first one that I read The Five People You Meet in Heaven on a whim from a suggestion from the Amazon store on my Kindle. I instantly fell in love with the way that his stories are told and made it a mission to read each of his books. I read The Time Keeper next which is his most recent book to be published. Each book is so different, some are true stories, some are loosely based around fables and stories from the Bible and each are so rich in lessons.

I’m on my third right now called Have a Little Faith. I was sitting in the airport on Saturday morning waiting for a flight to San Diego with a vanilla latte and my kindle in hand, when something he wrote struck me and made me stop.

 

The book is about a writer who is called by his childhood Rabbi to write his eulogy several years before his passing. He spends the time sitting and speaking with the aging Rabbi. During one of their sessions the Rabbi tells a story that goes something like this.

A poor man with no work experience asks a farmer for a job. The farmer is distrusting of the man and asks for a reference letter. The man returns to the farmer with a letter that only says "The man sleeps through a storm" and nothing else. Doubtful, but in need of help the farmer hires the man. Soon after, the farmer is awoken during the night by the sounds of a strong storm. He jumps out of bed and runs to the man he hired only to find him sleeping soundly. He goes to the barn to find that his animals have all been put away and fed plenty of food. He finds that his grain bins have been sealed tight to be kept dry from the rain. His crops have been harvested and stored away securely. The farmer realizes that his worker was not woken by the storm because he knew that he had taken care of everything that needed his attention and did not sleep with the anxieties of unfinished tasks.

This was where I stopped. I could feel what I had just read in my stomach. This story spoke to me. I am a procrastinator, an ostrich, and I do not sleep through a storm. I wake up in the night sometimes feeling sick with worry over things that I haven’t taken care of. I find myself lying awake thinking about phone calls I didn’t have time to return the day before, about projects that I need to finish, and so many other things that I need to take care of that I continuously put off until tomorrow, or the day after that. In my line of work the task lists never end, clients are never satisfied, and the emails keep coming regardless of the others that are sitting unread. I get it. I signed up for it. I have no plans of changing careers but sometimes? It’s just gets to be too much. But it isn't all only about work. My anxieties come from my real life too.

Maybe for me this is one of those moments that you hear people talk about. A moment that feels like God is speaking directly to you. Saying Hey! Yes, you! This is for you. Are you paying attention? 

So? Here I am, listening. I started reading these books hoping, praying, to learn something about myself and to grow. Here is my first lesson, and I'm going to learn it.