Kirk Franklin - Losing My ReligionPrimjer

NO SLEEP TONIGHT Ever had one of those nights where you couldn’t go to sleep? You felt restless and overwhelmed with the weight of the next day overbearing your desire for a good night of uninterrupted sleep? Many feel that in different ways. I watched the riots that happened in the streets earlier this year when racial tensions between the police and the black communities were boiling over and no one knew what the outcome would look like. They also couldn’t find the power to get good nights sleep. I think there’s one more thing that should be included in the discussion of things that rob us of lying down and confidently resting into our beds, and that’s the issue of love. Whether it’s rioting on the streets of our country, or the concerns about money and security for our families, they all can be traced back to the topic of love. In the song called NO SLEEP TONIGHT, I discuss that without the ingredient of love, God ordained, covering protective love, we will have catastrophic challenges in our world that make it hard for all of us to close our eyes at night and rest in a better tomorrow. How so? How do the issues of my finances that keep me up at night or the fighting we see on TV have to do with love? First, when we grab hold to the difficult yet simple truth that the God of the universe loves me so much, that He promised me that all of my needs, not my greed’s, will be taken of, I can grab my pillow, snuggle into the middle of the warm part of the bed, and be out like a truck hit me because all of my bills, debt, tuition, HE GOT ME! He will supply all of my needs. I cannot worry and rest at the same time. And the issue of the racial storm that has shown its ugly face for centuries could no longer exist if we see each other through the lens of God’s love. No man would ever put his hands on a girl if her father were in the same room. The same should be for each other. If we see each other as God’s kids, with a Father who is always present, how I treat you has eternal implications. So if I love you the way I want to be loved as well, those implications are eternal as well. When I hurt you, I hurt myself. But when I love you, I am returning the favor of being loved, even when I’m not lovable. A person who has a clear picture of how lost they were when God found them can’t help but be so full of gratitude that they want to pass that love forward, no matter what color the recipient is. That’s how you end racism: through the lens of grace, covered in love. We were all lost, but have now been found, by one Father. Until then, there’ll be no sleep tonight.