Peripatetics: The Art of Walking
Tuesday, May 17, 2005
In Sunday School this week, I felt the best way to wrap up our semester looking at the process of sanctification--our growing in Christ--and the steps that help us most in that manner would be to walk you through my day and simply share with you what I do (not being presumptuous that I'm a standard of any type, mind you) to help me walk with Him.
Yesterday, I talked about beginning the day with a simple set of "target" prayers...to help focus on Him as the center of your day.
After I go through my task of getting ready, I get set to apply Psalm 46: 10, which reads, "Cease striving, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth."
See, I'm an early riser. I love the mornings when it feels like the entire world is still asleep but me. I don't know if I'd feel that way if I lived in a more naturally serene environment like a farm or mountains or on a lake or something, but my reality is that I live in a major metropolitan and cosmopolitan area. There's plenty of noise during my day.
When I get up early, my children are still asleep. My wife is still asleep. My dog is still asleep. Very few airplanes will fly over my home as will before 10PM. There are few cars and motorcycles rambling through my neighborhood. It's about the only time I can truly be still.
I take the dog out for a short walk. I get a cup of coffee. I get in my recliner. It's about 5:30AM by this time.
I read the newspaper...which takes about 20 minutes or maybe a half-hour depending on what's going on that catches my eye.
Then, to remind myself that the stuff I just read (which can usually get my creativity going and my passions stirred up) is all temporary, I go for devotional reading of Scripture.
Most days I read a Psalm from The Message. Other times it might be what my small group is studying that week. Other times it's a favorite passage. Sometimes I just open it at random and start reading. Most times I read an entire chapter, though. Sometimes I'll break it up, like if I read Psalm 119 (the longest one) I might break it up into three or four weeks). But mostly, I just get something and read it.
I do this because John 8:31 reminds us that disciples abide in His Word. They "live" there. It won't be the only time I get into the Word on any day, but I certainly have about 5 minutes to say a short prayer that God would guide my thoughts as I read His living Word, read a chapter, and then, from Psalm 1: 2, meditate on what I just read.
I ask two simple questions: What does that say about God? What does it say to me or about me? And I think, in the quiet and uninterrupted time.
That process reminds me who I am and who God is. It reminds me that what is seen is temporary and what is unseen is eternal. It reminds me that God is God and I'm not. It really just keeps me in that state of trying to see the events of this life as God sees them and not as man sees them. It keeps me from buying the lies that will be thrown at me as well as the ones that already were thrown at me from the newspaper I just read (ads, the importance of sports, the problematic nature of world poverty and war, etc.).
I take that time to be still, and think about Who God is and What He's like and that He makes all things with His hands and He will be exalted. He is in control. He is not moved, no matter what is going on in the world or in my life.
And that's how I get my day started. For you, your time of being still might be at lunchtime when you can grab a bench away from everyone at school, or maybe eat lunch alone in some isolated place. It might be at night before bedtime. It might be whenever and wherever you can grab some space.
But the morning is my time...and for some reason, the stuff I read in the morning stays in my brain for quite a while. And tomorrow we'll look at what I do when the day sort of "ramps" up and gets busy.
So, for today, when is your time to cease striving? What practical helps, such as location, reading material, journals, etc. "work" for you?
Brent 4:16 AM
Comments:
hey brent,
I really enjoyed your lesson on Sunday. Even if your schedule doesn't fit everyone in the room, there is something you say about your routine that helps us (well me anyway) be able to find ours. I , myself, am a morning person as well. 6:30 is sleeping late, and I wouldn't have it any other way. When you told us about your prayer in the morning... "whatever, whenever, whoever...today", that really got me thinking to where when somthing came up, that prayer would pop into my head and it would cool me down. I think that the psalms are great...I haven't really gotten into them yet, but I have the same problem that my father has, every passage is his favorite, so I am haveing trouble finding something to read every day. Anyhow... loved your last lesson of the year, next year will be awesome.
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I really enjoyed your lesson on Sunday. Even if your schedule doesn't fit everyone in the room, there is something you say about your routine that helps us (well me anyway) be able to find ours. I , myself, am a morning person as well. 6:30 is sleeping late, and I wouldn't have it any other way. When you told us about your prayer in the morning... "whatever, whenever, whoever...today", that really got me thinking to where when somthing came up, that prayer would pop into my head and it would cool me down. I think that the psalms are great...I haven't really gotten into them yet, but I have the same problem that my father has, every passage is his favorite, so I am haveing trouble finding something to read every day. Anyhow... loved your last lesson of the year, next year will be awesome.
