Tag Archives: meditation

Daily

daily

Then he said to them all, “If any wish to come after me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. Luke 9:23

I have been on a mission to read more daily devotionals and listen to daily podcasts on a Scripture verse. Like with anything, it comes easily at first, but then I have noticed that other distractions get in the way. “I have to take a shower before I do a devotion.” “I have too much work to do to listen to a podcast today.” “I have a TV show I want to watch instead.” So I have fallen behind. With the Holy Spirit’s help I hope to get back on track this week and carve out time for spiritual meditation on a daily basis.

At the same time, I am sticking to my personal commitment to walk every day, no matter what. How am I keeping that up? I think it is because I do it right away in the morning before any other distractions hit. I also am accountable to my trainer, who will ask me if I walked every day this week. And I do see results. I have lost 15 pounds in the process, for instance.

Some of these same motivators could help in daily focusing on God. I can do the devotion or podcast right away in the morning. I can have someone keep me accountable for doing the meditations. And I can be on the lookout for ways in which what I thought about in my spiritual moments positively affected my attitude toward others, my approach to work and my desire to serve.

My prayer continues to be that I be a daily disciple for Christ, and I hope the same for you.

Recharging

I am fascinated these days by how everyone is seemingly obsessed with keeping their smartphones charged. I am in restaurants and bars where patrons are always asking waiters and bartenders if they can plug in their phones behind a counter somewhere. And on any trip to the airport you will see all kinds of electronic devices being charged at outlet stations at various seating areas. Our greatest fear is being somewhere without our phone fully charged, it seems.phone charger

While I do know from experience how lost you feel when you are out in the middle of nowhere with a dead phone, I do wonder about what our obsession with wanted to keep charging our phones says about where our priorities lie.

We want to keep our phones charged at all times, yet we are not as diligent about recharging our faith on a daily basis. If we have the time to search for an outlet to recharge our phones, we certainly have to the time to take a few minute to search through Scripture at various times throughout the day to keep ourselves charged up spiritually.

Instead of panicking when we receive notification that our phone power is at 20% and then at 10%, we should be worried that we have made through 10% or 20% of the day without praying. Our spirits can be refreshed again and again with a few moments of simple one-on-one conversation with our Savior.

Continue reading →

Centered

labyrinth

This is what a typical labyrinth looks like.

During Lent this year, I am reading the book Walking the Labyrinth by my good friend Travis Scholl. In it he tells of a Lent several years ago in which he walked the winding path of a labyrinth in a churchyard near his home every day of the sacred season.

Scholl describes how the weather, the surroundings, his mood changed each time he walked the labyrinth reflecting and praying. I imagine in my mind’s eye a kind of movie montage of different scenes behind Scholl as he makes his same labyrinth walk each day.

Continue reading →