Every few weeks I find myself sitting in front of a plate of smothered, covered, diced and chunked at the neighborhood Waffle House. Not a healthy diet, but it’s a regular appointment I keep with my accountability partner. We eat, talk, laugh, and pray. There is almost never a surprise sin or a bombshell that requires a third cup of coffee. We are generally aware of each others lives, frailties and what each are making war against. When the last bit of raisin toast is eaten and the Amen is spoken we walk away knowing something has happened.
But what has actually happened? For sure, our friendship has deepened. Certainly we obeyed God in confessing our sins to one another. Prayers rose through the smoke stained ceiling above the grill and punctuated heaven’s chorus. On the surface we scheduled a time for growth and spiritual weed pulling and left a bit healthier than when we arrived. But what really happened?
Spiritual Rhythm happened.
We are all aware of rhythm. Some of you have it, some of us don’t. Webster’s defines it as a repeated pattern of movement or sound. The songs we love and the poems we read all have a cadence that we can move to. They take us places we wouldn’t go on our own. And there is such thing as a spiritual rhythm. We all need them. We need them if we want to move, to grow, to go places our hearts need to go. Spiritual rhythm is never hurried but steady and constant.
For some, this sounds mystical and mysterious. It’s not. I’m talking about making our calendar work for us. Schedule what matters first. And then do it again and again and again. Do you see and feel the rhythm of that? Do what feeds your life first and then do it for a long time. Our hearts have fallen prey to the lull of conformity—60 hour weeks, cubicle living and walking around like a drone. Our souls and lives feel lifeless.
God is most glorified when we live as someone ALIVE to the grace and power of God.
Let me suggest 4 Spiritual Rhythms to integrate into your life so that you can come alive:
- Daily Bible Reading. Wake up 15 minutes early and feed your soul. Pick out a bible reading plan from here and let the purposes of God wash over your day before it ever begins. If we want our lives to move in the right direction we need to turn up the volume of grace in our lives.
- Scripture Memory. Since college my wife and I have made scripture memory part of our spiritual rhythm. A verse, sometimes two, is written on a note card and re-read until my thirsty soul drinks it up. Then the next morning, I pick up the card again. Rinse and repeat. 15 years into this rhythm my wife bleeds the words “that endure forever” (Isaiah 40:8). If you and I want to come alive, we must feed our souls with what will make us come alive.
- Regular church involvement. Push pause on the “church is full of hypocrites” or “I can do church on the lake” articles that cry foul against organized religion. Don’t ditch the church. The church is the place, the people, in which we gather weekly to remind ourselves that we are not the center of the universe and that our lives are but a breath. Let your voice join the throng of sinners redeemed by the grace of God and humbly submit your life to the Scriptures.
- Community. For clarity, I mean Jesus-centered, mission-driven, addicted to hope kind of community. A community in which our weaknesses are put on display and friends have the invitation to speak truth and correction into our lives. Meet every week. Say no to that extra little league practice. Don’t work late on that night. Say yes to a rhythm that will put your life congruent with others heading in the same direction.
So what happens when you and I create this spiritual rhythm? It’s hard to tell in the short run. For sure, friendships will be developed, sins confessed, songs sung, and scripture learned. You and I will begin to look more like Jesus. But we’re after the long view. When the rhythm of this life comes to an end and we can look back and see that our life moved towards God, his grace and for his glory that’s how we know we lived life fully alive.
