Man, I am tired. I don’t know if I am still recovering from the radiation treatments or if I am just getting old. But I struggle most mornings to get out of bed. It is hard for me to believe I am the same guy who would close the bar down at 2:00 AM and be at work by 5:00. Or maybe that is why I am so tired, my body finally paying for all those wicked ways. Either way I am tired.
As I thought with my head leaned back about writing this morning, sleep was on my mind. But then came a memory. It kind of startled me at first because I had not thought of Clyde Caldwell in many years but there he was smiling at me that tired smile from behind my closed eye lids. Clyde the Glide we used to call him, the man who could and would sleep anywhere.
I guess it was about 1979 when I first met Clyde. I had traveled down from my home in Champion, Michigan to Southern Indiana to begin work on the Marble Hill Nuclear Power Plant. The company I had been working for in Michigan had offered me a job and it was too good for me to turn down. Construction was in its first stages and there was a promise of two to four years of solid work, overtime hours a plenty. So, I had moved the family into a trailer in Hanover and was onsite one Monday morning in August.
It wasn’t long after I entered the ‘dry shack’ early that morning that I spotted a small, wiry man who seemed to be passed out on one of the lunch table benches. Not that unusual of a sight. There had been many a morning I had nodded off before work, catching a few extra winks. But this dude was out cold and snoring up a storm. I turned to one of the foremen I had known on the Michigan project and asked, “What gives with this guy?” pointing at the old man who now had his mouth agape and seemed to be puffing like a steam engine. Jimmy Green, the foreman, just shrugged and said, “Aww, that is Clyde the Glide, that man can fall asleep at the drop of a dime.” No one seemed all that concerned, so I shrugged also and stowed my gear in my assigned cubby hole.
Soon the bosses were calling start of the work day and assigning crews and without a shake or turn Clyde sat up strapped on his gear and headed out like he had been fully awake the whole time. Curiouser and curiouser!
Clyde and I were assigned to the same crew both of us working for Jimmy. I was happy to know I would be working for my old boss and that our assignment was working the five-foot-thick walls on the Containment Building. And as the weeks went by I found out how Clyde got his nickname. He was one smooth character, always quick with a joke and always knowing what to do. Just a cool dude. But his outstanding characteristic was he could sleep standing up.
Here we would be 100’ in the air standing on the work platform waiting for a load of rebar to come up from below and Clyde would have his eyes closed and I could swear he was snoring. But as soon as the load was in position he would be instantly awake and working like it never happened.
Finally, one day I had to ask, “Clyde, how can you sleep anywhere like you do. Man, I have seen you sleeping with horns and buzzers blaring. Jackhammers making noise that could wake the dead! What’s up with that?” Clyde turned to me with that sleepy grin and said, “John-boy, I have a clear conscience and am right with God. When you are at peace with your Maker there is nothing better than resting with a prayer in your mind and a praise in your heart!” I was about to laugh, I mean I thought this guy must be kidding. But looking him in the eye, I knew he was serious. My heart was so closed to God at the time, I just shrugged it off and thought, “Ok, I am working with another one of those crazy Jesus freaks.”
In my walk with the Lord, I have struggled with finding peace. I know most of my problem stems from a lack of faith, a failure to surrender wholeheartedly. Maybe you struggle too. My best solution for this has been a verse that reassures me that I am not alone, and that peace is possible, even for me. “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4: 6-7) When I remember that my part of the relationship with my God and Savior is to pray and be thankful, and I actually do that to start my day. I find His peace is with me and that leads me to pray throughout the day bringing me more assurance and peace.
I heard quite a few years ago that Clyde went to his rest in Jesus. That he fell asleep one afternoon while sitting on his porch but unlike so many times before he did not spring awake. At the time I heard this I was not walking with the Lord yet and I did not understand Clyde’s kind of peace. Thinking about him today, I realized that I would have liked to work with him one more time and say, “Clyde, I get it now! Peace in the Lord is amazing!” I know he would grin and say in his southern drawl, “Yes, sir, John-boy, I knew He would show you one day!” I think I will look him up in the New Jerusalem. It will be a little strange because he will never need to sleep, and I will never be tired. But, man, what a beautiful day that will be! I pray peace for you all today!
Blessings and Happy Sabbath, John
8/24/18
