More Suggestions to Cultivate Depth...
(Continuing with some practical suggestions from yesterday to cultivate a more quiet heart and mind that has depth)
4. Listen to more quiet & contemplative music: I use Pandora a lot on my iPhone. I have created stations for Fernando Ortega, David Nevue, Randy Edelman, Paul Cardall, David Carnes, Ed Gerhard, Bach, Handel, and Yo Yo Ma. These are all very contemplative music stations – only Ortega has the occasional songs with words, all the rest are instrumentation only.
If you want some more upbeat contemplative music that is a bit more inspiring…I use the stations: Band of Brothers, James Horner, John Williams, Braveheart, and Gladiator (You can probably figure out what I was listening to in certain portions of my sermon).
Whatever it is, try and mix in quieter and more contemplative music. OR, just drive and walk with NO music at all! I’ve found this to be surprisingly helpful at times recently largely because I always have noise around me, and it was nice to not plug noise into my ears (pleasant though it may be).
5. Read! I mention this in the “turning off the electrics” section, but find a book that you like and even if you are not a reader (especially!) commit yourself to reading something for a stretch of no less than 15 minutes. Further, try and do it in quiet. The weather is getting warmer, go outside, do it there.
I have recently started reading good history books in the evening. Oh, how I miss reading history, and it has really inspired me when reading it and has encouraged my imagination and helped me be a better communicator and illustrator.
Obviously, don’t read anything that is going to take your mind to places it need not go. Also, don’t read books/articles that will eventually encourage you to be thin. Stay away from the thin, more entertainment driven magazines largely because what is behind them is not depth, but thinness.
6. Create regular times of Prayer & Solitude: The Pastor of our Mother church is really good at this and he told Joey and I once, that if you don’t do this regularly you will get “wobbly.” (I’ve never forgotten that word)…and I have found it to be very true.
I’ve noticed I get a little snappy, frustrated, or agitated easily when I don’t do this regularly. These manifestations are tip offs to me that I need to go and get some prayer and solitude.
When I say “regular” that could mean an hour a week where you plan to do something every Saturday or Sunday. It could be a half day or whole day every month, etc. But don’t let too much time go by between these times as you will find yourself getting snappy, frustrated, or agitated easily, then it is too late.
Here is a sheet our former Pastor wrote up as to what that looks like. If possible drive outside the city and get to some peace and quiet. If you don’t have a car, schedule a time to do it with someone who does, and one go one direction, the other go the other direction. I’ve found tons of places within an hour of DC to do this. Get out there and don’t bring technology with you (except a phone for safety if need be, but leave it off unless you ABSOLUTELY need it) and bring your Bible, a journal, or nothing at all. Just sit for 20-minute stretches and don’t say a word, just listen. Then pray, spend a lot of time in Thanksgiving, don’t start hitting God up with a thousand petitions, though do petition Him, but mainly just try and enjoy His company.
Too long…some more tomorrow…
10 Practical Suggestions to Cultivate Depth
Okay, application time. We have spent most of our time together really just bringing recognition to the depth and width of our hearts and minds. We noted that what is rooted in the heart comes out into our thinking (minds) which translates into our actions (Consistent with Mark 7).
Before giving some practical applications, let me call to mind that these things won’t be the “answer” to the problem, but they can be appetizers to tide you over till eventually you can sit before a big meal. These applications are helps, not solutions – specific repentance and a cultivated mind that learns to love the things of God and sits in contemplation on them (Ps. 1) is the solution…having said that, lets go!
1. Memorization & MEDITATION of long stretches of “vertical passages from the God’s word, specifically the Psalms. I have been infinitely helped by not just memorizing, but meditating (contemplating) on Psalms 1, 23, 46, 103 the last couple weeks. What this has allowed me to do is maintain focus & have that focus be on deep thoughts of God (It has really helped my prayer life as well).
I’ve historically used Scripture memory like my pinball mind usually works…all over the place. Memorizing (not meditating) on shorter passages that are topically driven.
I find myself walking around DC now mumbling these longer vertically passages to myself and the Lord… a great way to train my mind to focus and I’ve found my heart really loving these thoughts of the Lord. Give it a shot, start with Ps. 23, and don’t move onto another one after a day. Just have your devotional in that passage for a whole week and say it, read it, quote it, pray it throughout the day for yourself and others.
2. Turn OFF your electronics! I know, its sound so “old fashion” doesn’t it? Come home from work, don’t turn on your TV, turn off your cell phone, don’t turn on any music…and just reflect on your day, the good things, the bad things…then just converse with the Lord about it.
Or, find a good book you like to read. Doesn’t have to be Christian, and just read it in silence. Set a goal for yourself – read for 30 straight minutes in silence, etc. I have gotten more reading done the last couple months by doing this and I think my mind is being less cluttered and less hurried.
Or, turn off the electronics and have a MEANINGFUL conversation with someone. Don’t just talk about the weather or a movie…actually ask one another questions about days gone by that were sweet or things that you are looking forward to and why. Dream a bit together. But again…turn everything off!!
3. Go take a walk: Who does that anymore right? Sure, our streets are a bit loud, go, but most of us have access to either Rock Creek Park or Glover Archibold Park…but go, and DON’T bring your cell phone…I PROMISE it will be okay! (Although Ladies may want to bring theirs for safety, I understand…just try and keep that thing at bay).
When you walk, wonder at creation. Look at the trees, note the different types, listen to the birds (I know it sounds cheesy, just do it), listen to the sounds of nature. It all sounds “new age” but this is the Lord’s creation! Think of nature as a window to look upon the Lord.
This is getting long, so I will come back tomorrow with some more suggestions…
Is it LOUD in Here?
Major point from yesterday, be aware of the negative effects of technology in providing you a great deal of distraction. Today, I want us to think about how noise causes us to have scattered and hurried hearts and minds.
I spend a great deal of time in Starbucks (I often call them my “office”). From discipleship meetings to sermon preparation, it is one of the few places I can sit for long stretches of time and not have to spend much money. I began to notice a few weeks back that even though I throw my ear buds on & play soft contemplative music, I still have muted conversations, strange jazz music, and that lovely sound of steamed milk in the back ground, all the while I am trying to focus in on FF Bruce’s working through the Greek of Acts 17!!
It would seem to me, your life has similar environments. Think about it…is your own living space quiet? I bet its like mine, with road noise busting in even when you try and turn everything off for a quiet moment. Or, maybe you go to the library, but that study group is just on the other side of the partition. Face it; it is almost impossible to get any extended or regular times of peace here inside the city.
Here is the really bad news about all of this…there really isn’t a whole lot we can do about it. Its not like we all have cars we can drive down to the local park and listen to the quiet of the birds chirp. Nor can we just pop over to the Library of Congress once a day for some peace and quiet…this is just one of the realities of living in a major city.
Although, each of you live and work in environments that will allow you to get some level of peacefulness and I would encourage you to try and tap into those things as often as you can throughout the day.
I have noticed that the thing I thought was helping me was, at times, hurting. My listening to soft music actually cluttered my mind more than quieted it. Having sounds of conversations & other varied noises in the back ground were better to still my heart and mind instead of simply adding a noise in soft music. Now, that isn’t always the case, but I did find it to be much more helpful than I first thought.
Bottom line for today…take notice of the varied, and voluminous noises that exist around you throughout your day. I think what you will find is that there is always noise…much of it we can do nothing about…its just a reality, but we have to first become aware of the noise around us and only then can we determine if and when we can bring some silence into be a part of our day. So, pay attention today, take note, and lets come back tomorrow for some practical suggestions on helping create a mind that is unhurried, de-cluttered, and operates at a good pace so as to allow depth.
Baited Hooks
Take a look around you right now. Look inside the panel of your desktop. Right now I have an internet window immediately behind my word doc and on that internet site there are throngs of things which I wont detail, behind that I have an article up to be read, to my right I have a remote control (TV is not on, but it is in front of me), and within a very close reach is my iPhone which has a bizzillion of other things on it. What about you? What’s around you right now?
Chances are you are within a stone’s throw of two mind cluttering, thin harboring, and life maddening things that I will call hooks. Those two things, two hooks are technology &, noise. In each of these we see where I think we bite the hooks that are baited for us and get reeled into the boat of thinness and distraction.
Today we will look at technology. I love technology. I’m for it, do not expect to find any rhetoric here that will tell you to move to Pennsylvania Dutch country and lock arms with the Amish (wait for it…here it comes)…but technology is not always good for us.
I will use my iPhone as an example. I bought it so I wouldn’t have to tote an iPod & a phone, while also being able to get emails on the fly, all the while thinking: “This way I don’t have to work as much at home.” ALL TRUE! But in thinking about a distracted mind, here is the problem with all of that – it does all of that!!
On just that one dollar bill sized block of plastic and glass I have within a single touch, the world wide web, email, music, texting, news, and angry birds (which I don’t have), and these are just to name a few applications, there are millions that I can just tap and BOOM, up they come for my distracted enjoyment.
Technology is like a baited hook. It bills itself as a nice big, juicy worm that you can eat and enjoy, but it doesn’t tell you that if your not careful you can bite into a hook as well. What do I mean by that?
Well, having all those devices IS convenient, but it’s also convenient. Follow me? We always recognize the good parts of technology, and rightfully so – they are great. I love my iPhone and I don’t plan on giving it up. But we rarely take the time to consider the negative contributions of technology.
While you can call Mom, answer an email, and text someone within seconds, you have to consider while that can be good, that could also be bad. In that you are playing into a hurried, thin, cluttered mind that’s attempting to communicate with someone using words and ideas in fractions of seconds. Again, not always bad, but a lifestyle of this will starve you from the depths of delight because you are constantly operating on the surface of things, instead of seizing pockets of silence, stillness, consideration, reflection, etc.
In short, technology is just like sin. It wants to take you as far as you will let it. And if you let it, technology will have you skipping rocks on water instead of probing the depths of the sea.
I’ll provide some ways I think are good ways to use technology day after tomorrow, so stay tuned. Tomorrow’s task is showing how noise plays into our distraction.