Spiritual DISCIPLINES for a Healthier Soul

The way that you can enjoy the season, not have your soul stolen by the season, and be better on the other side of the season is choosing to embrace a couple of things. Mindfulness— for some of y'all, that's a scary word— and gratitude. Christians are not afraid of gratitude. Mindfulness and gratitude. There is a power in mindfulness and gratitude. There is a benefit when you focus on slowing down and appreciating little things. There is a beauty in being present so that you are pacing yourself through the season where there are other demands. Many of us are good at saying no to demands we don't want to answer yes to. That's not the problem. The problem is when there are seasons where we really want to say yes and we overcommit or undercommit. We over-involve ourselves or under-involve, or we don't plan appropriately. And so all the things that we are doing, we miss the main thing because we are not paying attention. What is mindfulness? Now, some people might say it's a positive form of meditation, um, that it can help you manage stress, that if you're not mindful, it can negatively impact your physical and spiritual health. But mindfulness, this idea is just a technique of focusing your attention on the present. It is about paying attention. Um, one of the reasons why I have a whole chapter in She's Still There about paying attention to your life is because when you don't pay attention to your life, when you're not where you are in your skin, in your shoes, when you aren't thoughtful about how you're going to spend your day or what you did today, when you are living at the pace that the world sells us, you are missing— you're actually missing your life. That's why the Bible tells us not to worry about tomorrow, not to presume that tomorrow will even come, is because if you do too much thinking about tomorrow and thinking about tomorrow and planning for tomorrow does have its place, but if you do too much, you will miss the moment. And in reality, the moments that we're in are the only ones we have. If you look back and you cry over spilled milk too long, then you'll forever be frustrated or living in a past memory that's stealing today. One of the keys to making it through this season is practicing mindfulness, not being distracted or consumed by thoughts running around in your head, being able to clear the noise. It is a way of grounding yourself in the present moment, no matter what the present moment is characterized with, you can find yourself in the moment. Sometimes we do this by meditation. Sometimes we do this by relaxing. Sometimes we do this by sitting still or going for a walk and choosing not to listen to a podcast or not to be on the phone. We just look, we look at our feet, we look at the surrounding areas, we look at the trees, we look at the sidewalk, we pay attention to the cars. We are listening to the traffic patterns. We hear the bird in the tree. It is, I am here, I am here. You are also paying attention to yourself. You're paying attention to your thoughts, your feelings, your body, your sensation. If you are using your walk as a time to pray, then you spend time listening, being still, leaving open-ended space so that if God in spirit form wants to deposit something to you or bring something back to your attention or bring a message back or, uh, that you heard yesterday in church or bring a scripture to mind or convict you of something or bring someone's name to mind, he has room to do that. Without awareness of what's happening in your mind, awareness of your body, awareness of your surroundings, you are not living mindful. I used to run in, um, preparing to run a marathon, I would run at White Rock Lake.. And one of the instructions we were given, my favorite shoe store in Dallas, Luke's Locker, has used to have running programs. And I signed up and that's where they ran. And so when we would gather before we would go to run, they would say, if you're running, take your AirPods out of your ears. If you have to have AirPods in your ear, only wear one. Primarily for one reason and secondarily another one. I'll start with the secondary reason. The secondary reason is you just want to generally be aware of your surroundings. You want to hear when somebody's about to run and pass you and they say, "On your left." You want to hear if a bike is coming. You want to just be aware. If your shoelace is untied and another runner says, "Check your lace," you want to hear that. Here's the first and most important reason, and it was most important for women. They did not want you at White Rock Lake in some of the areas where maybe Because we would start running, y'all, at, you know, 5 AM sometimes. When you had to run long miles, we started early. And when it's dark at 5:25, even if you have a running buddy and you're going through a patch where there are wooded areas where less-than-saved people are waiting to harm you, you need to hear that. You need to hear the bushes rustling. You need to hear somebody running up behind you. You need to hear. They were saying, stay mindful, stay attentive, stay present. Being mindful will force you to slow down. It will force you, good or bad, to release some things because you don't, and you're not going to jump into that right now. Now listen, I can be mindful when I get a massage. It's great. I mean, I will tell you that the shower, a massage, and a long trip with no radio are the 3 places where I can easily be mindful. When I was swimming, that's another place to be mindful. Now you can listen to your music while you swim. They done figured that out. But before that, I can't have my phone on. I'm not getting texts. I'm in the water and the sound of the water around me. There are places, you gotta figure out where's your place. How does that happen best? Because mindfulness can, if you are connected with the spirit of God, connect you in a way to spirituality, to God, to spiritual messages, to the spirit realm. And if you are there, then you are not frantically operating at a pace of all the other things that take up your space and time. So in this season, practicing mindfulness and paying attention to your life and making sure you're doing that, it slows the clock. Have you ever heard the saying, a watched pot never boils? Or do you remember being in school and watching the clock? And as long as you were watching the clock, it took forever for that last bell to ring. But if you were having a party in class, it seemed like the time went by really quick. When you are watching your time, when you are watching your feet, when you are watching your mind, when you are paying attention to your heart, when you are listening for God, it slows down. Time. So the trick of the season is, what can you do during this season to intentionally be mindful and thereby intentionally slowing your time? For me, I gave you examples. Walking does it. I can't do it when I'm running because when I'm running, I need that music with the beat to keep me going. So running is not my mindful activity. Walking is. Getting a massage is. Driving without the radio is. Taking a long hot shower is. So I want you to practice mindfulness. It will slow things down, and it has long since been— that's why it's all everywhere. If you Google mindfulness, you'll find Zen and Buddha and all these different things, because everybody else is borrowing it. But we don't have to run from it as people who love God just because other people have borrowed it. It is not about being unhealthily focused on yourself. It is not about being leaving room to worry. It is not about, you know, freaking out. And, and I will say, this morning when I was walking, I had my phone not because I was thinking about work, but I had my phone so that anything that came to mind while I was practicing mindfulness, I wrote it down so I wouldn't forget. So I captured it, but I didn't work on it. That's the difference. Now let me give you some scriptures because I want you to understand this is a principle that applies for us all. Number 1, prayer. 1 Thessalonians 5:17, pray without ceasing. My grandmother used to talk to herself, and now I know she was talking to God all the time. Prayer is one way to always stay connected and be present, talking to God about your very moment. Number 2, Psalm 48:9 and Psalm 63:6, they both talk about this concept of meditation. We have thought about your steadfast love, God, in the midst of your temple. We are at church thinking, we're thinking about you. Psalm 63:6 says, when I remember you upon my bed— can you be mindful and lay in the bed? You can— and meditate on you in the watches of the night. I was watching one of the recent videos by Shameless Maya, and she was saying the message that I'm about to share with you this morning— God woke me up last week on Monday at 3:30 AM, and he just started downloading all these things to me. And it was so funny that I heard that message this morning because that's what time I woke up. And I was just getting all these— you don't have to get up at 3:30, but I do want you to say sometimes you need to be like Samuel was in 1 Samuel chapter 3. You need to say when you get up, you don't know why, speak Lord, your servant is listening. You should be thinking about good things, Philippians 4:8. There's a whole list. Whatsoever is right and true and good and praiseworthy. That's where the gratitude part comes in. Being mindful says, in my own shoes this morning, what am I grateful for? As I'm right here, what is, what is to be noticed that I can say thank you for? And yes, being grateful when Thanksgiving comes is awesome. You know, be in your family circle, say a prayer, that's amazing. But really When you practice that, because all day long there is something, even when you pause in the, you know, when we talk about breathing in for, holding for 4, breathing out for 8, and you feel, as Dr. Anita talks about, your vagus nerve relaxing right there. Wow. Thank you for my breath. I have the ability right now to breathe. Thank you for my breath. When you just sit still and notice the beat of your heart. My heart has sustained me since before I sucked air when I was in my mother's womb. And every day when I'm not thinking about it, it's keeping me alive. I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Do you see how mindfulness connects with gratitude? I was walking this morning. And I'm walking this morning with compression hose on and some socks, and I had this— I had this little thing that's bothering me on the back of my foot, but it doesn't stop me from walking. So I noticed it when I was walking. I noticed it. I noticed, you know, I've Googled, you know, we can be our own doctor. It might be bursitis or some tendinitis or something. I'm gonna go have it looked at. But I remember when I was in the hospital, and we weren't sure if I was gonna be able to keep my foot. I had an infection that set in. It was systemic. And I remember being on a wound vac for 3 months of my life. Mindfulness of a little sore on the back of my foot resulted in gratitude. There is a difference between, and I wanna just touch on this just a little bit, between living a busy life and living a full life. It's very difficult to be mindful and grateful in a busy life because busyness on its own drains. Fullness adds. They may look the same, but they're different because your time can be full of what God has put on your plate, and you can have a full life where you are operating fully in your passions and where the things that you were doing— while they may— while they— it's not that they may not make you tired, they also fill your cup. And a full life is different than a busy life. Because if you're just busy and stuff is on your calendar and you're checking things off the list and it drains you, busy has no purpose. Full does. And in a full life, you are mindful. 2 Corinthians 10:5 says, take every thought captive. You can do this when you are mindful, because when there's nothing else sucking up your attention, you notice when a rogue thought runs across, and in that moment you catch it and you go— if you don't know a verse to combat it, you go look one up. Is this true? I caught the thought because I was mindful. This is not true. Philippians 4:8. I'm thinking about good things and I'm comparing my thought to the word of God. And now, if nothing else, I'm grateful for the word of God that helps me to capture my thoughts because I was mindful enough to even notice them. You are transformed in the renewing of your mind when you know what your mind is doing. Spiritual disciplines is a fancy way for saying be disciplined about spiritual things. Be disciplined about taking care of your soul, not just your personality, not like self-care, soul care, but my spirituality. Just like you take care of your physical body, You drink water, you get the fancy teas, you go for a walk, you go to your checkup. What are the disciplines that care for your spiritual self? When I was in the 6th grade, I had a moment. I had a 6th grade teacher, Mrs. Hall, that really pointed me toward the Lord. And I had a renaissance in the 6th grade of asking her, what can I do to, to be intentional? And she had this book, this prayer journal that she kept. She talked to me about her journaling practices. She talked to me about how she prayed without ceasing, and nothing was different or foreign to me because my parents, of course, had taught me. But I was interested in learning from her, right? And I look back now at the journal entries I wrote when I was in the 6th grade and see the beginnings of God talking to me then. In the assurance that I have now about hearing his voice. And it started because she introduced me in her way to spiritual discipline. When I think about Revelation and the scripture in Revelation that says, "I have one thing against you, that you have left your first love." When I think about what my first love looked like, I think about 6th grade. Get back to the beginning. Get back to when you were on fire, because when you were on fire, you probably were interested in all the things and you didn't need discipline to do it because you were fresh and on fire and in love, right? You were stoking the fire because you wanted to be— you wanted the temperature in the room to be right. When I— when, when it's cold, we finally got our fireplace. Last year dealt with. And I love my fireplace, and it burns real wood, and we make sure that there's freshly chopped wood in the back. And my husband says, you really enjoy keeping that fire going, don't you? I do. We actually have a stove. There's a door where it closes, and I like to get it going. And then when you close the door, the way the airflow works, it can burn all day without you adding minimal wood. You don't have to tell me. I don't I don't have to exercise the discipline when I want the fire because I just naturally just keep putting logs in when it's needed. Ask me though, if we have a freeze and we lose electricity and I have to stoke the fire, is it as enjoyable? Not as, because I have to do it. There are times in your life when you're going to want to stoke the fire. You are You had a good church service, God spoke to you, you got a download, you know, he's answered the prayer, you, you've recently recommitted or you're recently saved. And then there are seasons where you do the things to keep the fire going out of discipline, not because you feel like it, because it's a part of living your spiritual life. We are all going to be doing something, and by virtue of what we do, we're going to be formed by our thoughts and our actions. Our lives will be formed. I heard a woman recently say The secrets of a successful life are hidden in your daily habits. Show me someone's daily habits and I'll show you the trajectory of their life. Your spiritual development is no different. You want a deep spiritual life? Show me a person who prioritizes spiritual discipline and I'll show you someone who deeply knows God. You are going to be formed by your habits. You are going to be formed— your spiritual life will be formed by your discipline. So you have a variety of inputs that you can engage in to shape your spiritual life and the essence of who you are as a spiritual being. But you have to be knowledgeable and aware that this is not a random game. This is intentional living. Okay? Spiritual disciplines or practice are things that we do because they form us into the likeness of Christ. Richard Foster said, a farmer is helpless to grow grain. All he can do is provide the right conditions. For growing grain. So he cultivates the ground, he plants the seed, he waters the plants, and then the natural forces of earth take over and come up. They help the grain come up. And this is what spiritual disciplines are. They are a way of sowing into the spirit. By themselves, spiritual disciplines can do nothing. They only get us to the place where something can be done. You have to cultivate it. The seed needs the ground, the ground needs the seed. The seed of the word is no different in your life. You have to cultivate it. Richard Foster, by the way, is another great author if you want to read more about spiritual disciplines. So these are practices that set the stage. Mindfulness is one of those. Gratitude is another one of those. They set the stage for what God wants to do in us. They are not an end goal, okay? We don't— we're not practicing mindfulness for mindfulness' sake or fasting for fasting's sake. We are doing them to be formed into the likeness of God. They are a vehicle that the Spirit of God can use to shape us, but they require practice, spiritual practices. And you do them repeatedly even when you don't feel like it. Do not be conformed by this age, the Bible says in Romans 12, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you can know what is good and pleasing and perfect. This world is full of distractions, and all these distractions are designed to do one thing: to pull you away from what's most important, to pull you away from the transformative work that God wants to do in you. So the way that you practice daily renewal that fights against the things that would draw you away is your commitment to spiritual practices. John 15:5, my mother's favorite verse: I am the vine, you are the branches. If you remain in me and I am in you, you will bear much fruit, because apart from me you can't do anything. It goes on later to say, you will ask whatever you will, because my desires— I'm in you— will be your desires. You'll be asking for what I want. One of the benefits of hiring people that are more seasoned in life is that they come with experience, they come with work ethic, they come with skill. And I can do this with someone who's more seasoned, but one of the joys of hiring someone who's fresh and green around the ears is I get to shape them. They, they're gonna build their experience with me. And it's so beautiful when someone comes in the door and is, and, and learns because they abide. Learns because they spend time with me. Abiding, that's the way it works with the Lord. He's like, will you come to work with me? Will you be my assistant? Will you intern with me? Will you be my road dog, my handler? Will you serve with me? Because when you're with me, I'm constantly downloading, and you'll realize that out of your connection to me, good things grow. But you have to be willing to circle the wagons with him. And that's the process of practicing consistently. So what are some of the disciplines? Different scholars talk about different ones. You don't have to do them all at the same time. Solitude, silence, fasting, simplicity— that looks like get rid of it and don't spend— sacrifice, serving, praying, worship, reading the scripture, reading it out loud, studying it. Celebration is a spiritual discipline, and I want to go into these later. I wanted to set the stage for that and introduce them to you. Mindfulness, of course, can be practiced when you are silent and when you are by yourself. Mindfulness can be practiced on the Sabbath, but I want you to think about mindfulness and gratitude as disciplines that allow you to connect and abide with God. Because it's not just about studying the word, it's about knowing the person who wrote the letter. Getting to know God and practicing spiritual disciplines means that when you have a word, when you have a scripture, when you have a teaching, when you have a conviction, you won't just know the letter writer, the word speaker, you'll know the heart behind it. So My challenge to you this week is to think about what do spiritual disciplines look like? And I want to be really tactical and practical about walking you through some ideas for each one of these so that you can pick through one or two of them for the holidays. What spiritual practice, spiritual discipline am I going to practice this holiday. So mindfulness is one of them. Of course, gratitude. Start a gratitude journal. That's why there's a spot in the planner for you to write what you're grateful for. I wanted to make it easy for you, but if you're like, I want to write something down every day, get a journal, get a notebook on your phone, and just keep a running list. So I've given you a place to start. There's so many other ways to do it. Start small so that you can be consistent. I want you to practice consistently. And then I want you to be thinking about what might change in your life if through mindfulness, gratitude, or some other spiritual discipline, if you were more greatly connected to the letter writer and to the person from whom the spiritual flow comes, the source of it all, what might change in your life? What might you believe that God is doing or saying in your life? Because you now know who wrote the letter. Every time in my life when I have not been able to hear clearly and I moved without listening or asking and exercising a spiritual discipline to make sure I was getting the download, and I have moved on my own volition, wasn't good. Wasn't good. Because that's not how he wants us to move. That's right, Janine. That is so good. It's like when you practice spiritual disciplines, you have invited yourself into God's inner circle. That's it. He's like, everybody can know me in the outer courts, you know, it, it's— you, you know me beyond the hearing of the ears, you know me. And in the temple in the Old Testament, there were the outer courts. Everybody knew where the temple was. Only certain people got to come on the inside, and only certain people got to go to the inner court, and then only certain people got to go to the Holy of Holies. And God is constantly inviting you. It's like concentric circles. You can be on the outside and enjoy the concert, but then you can have VIP seating, better seating. Then you can have VIP access like the meet and greet, and then you either know them to go to the dressing room or you don't. God is con— he's consistently, y'all, inviting us in. But you don't get there without your ticket, and the ticket is your connection to your spiritual being and the connection in your spiritual being to his spiritual being. And you don't get that without spiritual discipline. So my challenge to you is let's practice spiritual discipline. Mindfulness, easy assignment, y'all. Just go for one walk, walk outside your front door and spend 5, 10, or 15 minutes. Nothing, nothing in your ears. Okay. Don't get on the phone. Just walk, pay attention, or sit still. If your body is not able to get up and go do that, or don't, you know, don't get mad at yourself because you couldn't figure out when to put on your tennis shoes. Just get to work a few minutes early, stay 10 minutes later, say goodbye to everybody, shut your door, and just sit there. Hear the clicking of the clock, the ticking of the clock on the wall. Hear the buzz of the computer that sits at your desk. When you get to that level, you're listening. My invitation to you is simply that. Just listen. Lord Jesus, teach us how to be mindful. May we learn from your example. May we slow down. Maybe we don't change everything we do, but we change the way we do it. Help us to put our kids to bed. Help us to get up early with the alarm clock. Help us to be consistent about our walk. Help us to use the planners that we buy to write stuff down, whether that be the planner that I have or the planner we got from somebody else. Help us to break out our journals when we read the Bible or we go to church because we want to remember what you said. Help us to take care of the words that you give us and the invitation that you give us to enjoy our environment and to give gratitude for who you are and what you've allowed in our lives. Help us to be mindful of you, grateful to you, and with the overflow of mindfulness and gratitude, Give us a holiday season unlike none other. We thank you in advance for this grateful season approaching, for the season to remember the reason why we can even connect with you, and the new year coming because you make all things new. Help us to slow down and think about— and our lives and the gratitude that we have for the breath that we breathe. Because ultimately, every day we are desperate for you, and we want to live full circle lives. Not busy, but full circle lives. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Wow!