Today I’m thinking about life practices. Some might call them habits. I call them rhythms. What do you call them?
When I fall out of rhythm in an area in my life, be it spiritual, mental, or physical, I feel different. But sometimes, I don’t feel the loss of rhythm right away. Sometimes, I wake up, look around, and realize the drift.
This happened to me yesterday. I had felt the dissonance for some time, but in a profound moment of prayer, I felt the deluge of emotions that signalled my drift. But I also experienced the sweetness of returning to the practice.
I’d love to hear your thoughts, if you’re willing to share, on …
How do you handle this kind of drift—this, falling out of practice or losing a good habit or falling out of rhythm?
What do you use to help regain your rhythm/practices? A good practical book?
If so, what kind of book—genre, type, etc. Is it a book that offers you prompts for getting back on track or is it more inspirational with stories?
Or is it articles or podcasts? Or is it something physical that requires you to change your schedule or sleeping habits? Or is it something mental? Whatever the area in your life, how do you regain your practice?
How can I use this newsletter to be more practical for your rhythms as it relates to the topics I usually discuss: beauty/imagination, faith/culture, C.S. Lewis/apologetics?
This post could not have come at a better time as my brain and heart have been circling around this very thing for a few days and I felt the disconnect most keenly today over my morning coffee - a time that is typically reserved for reading, writing and mediation. We recently moved and in the days and weeks leading up to the move I felt so very disconnected from any sense of place and I've yet to feel completely grounded in our new home. When I find myself drifting, I typically try and ignore it or spend my time on things that won't help me recalibrate - think head in the sand. I wish I could say there was a specific book or podcast that helps me reset but alas, I find I typically stumble around until I land on something that resonates and signals a longing to settle back into my practices. Having said that, I regularly gravitate to words that are gentle and soothing, like poetry. I'll re-read things like Nouwen or Ann Voskamp. I've been finding myself straying away from podcasts of late - they almost feel like information overload. Short, inspirational posts like this one, that offer an opportunity for dialogue are the most meaningful to me as I regain my rhythms. In all of the change these past weeks and months I have come up with a mantra of sorts to help me find my practices: while all these things in my life have changed, this one thing remains true, God has not changed. Thanks for this today Tim - these weary soul needed to feel less alone in her disonnectedness.
I always appreciate your posts, Tim. I’ve been in a very long season of struggling to find my rhythm again. It’s a long story, but the shortest version is, dealing with some deep hurts has been a slow work the last couple of years, and I *think* the revelation of these wounds is where the drift first began…now, as I’m making small, steady progress in healing, I’m finding my hunger for that deep intimacy and fellowship with God re-awakening. Podcasts help. Lectio Divina helps, art helps, and being outside in nature helps. I’m re-learning how to s l o w down, and be present where I am, and as I practice my own presence, I imagine God’s very real Presence with me. Imagining the companionship of God in my days has helped me remember that God really IS present. Thanks for sharing and encouraging the conversation. It helps.
I call it my cadence and this just happened to me as well. Coming off a family vacation with family members we see once a year and deeply love, but don't share our love for God. My cadence was off on my return to real life, it showed up in my actions, moving too quickly, checking items off my todo list, telling myself to slow down but not being able to. I believe the Holy Spirit corrected me, I got back to my early morning cadence of thankfulness, Chemex drip coffee (ok maybe coffee first!), prayer time with my Father, a morning devotional, time with my wife, time in the Word. I'm breathing normally again, my cadence is back!
I've been wondering if this has anything to do with seasons and brokenness of the perfect creation as it intersects with our speed and life direction? Change is always present, but not always atrophy. When I feel afraid or stuck, I'm most resistant to the discipline of rhythm (and I'm sure it looks like I'm losing a good habit). I don't know what specifically helps me regain the practice of learning and adjusting, I think it's something different and surprising each time. I also think it requires effort and re-starting momentum - any direction, just some movement - and then course corrections once underway. Whatever "it" is, it's external and it's relational. While the terms "self-improvement" and "self-help" can be well meaning, I haven't experienced either by myself. I appreciate the material that you labor to write and I don't know that there's a standardized format that would help me more, I need the interruption to my plodding along (or stalled out state) that comes with each e-mail update, often it's the right thing at the right time.
Maybe I'm reading into it, but sometimes it seems like modern marketing and "branding" ourselves means really covering the ground with a similar message over and over so there's something consistent and yet "new" for each follower. I think that's hard for a creative to do, when the message is *to change and to learn and to wonder*. And that message is meaningful when it has direction, momentum to share to those of us who are stuck. I think you posted in your IG stories something that gave me permission to believe that I don't have to "live life to the fullest" or whatever marketing message that I didn't even realize I had accepted and measured myself against until you interrupted it. So, thank you for your momentum and messages to pursue Jesus no matter what season I'm experiencing.
I am really interested in what others use to get out of the "drift". I've been in one for a few years and feel like I can't get my rhythm back. I have found some peace listening to the Holy Post podcast and also The Saturday Stoke. I needed the encouragement to unplug and that is very helpful.
I work at a SBC church and have been very discouraged. Coming from an executive level job in the pharma world to the church world has been eye opening. It has been a hard transition and not sure if it was worth it.
Not the happiest of posts but I do find encouragement in your writing and the emphasis on beauty and taking the time to recognize it.
This is something a guy named John Durant (of "Paleo Manifesto) wrote 8 years ago, which continues to haunt me:
"Habitats. People will shift away from trying to change their bad habits through willpower and discipline — like New Year’s resolutions — and increasingly focus on changing their physical habitats (bedrooms, kitchens, offices, and gyms) [meaning, for example, adding places which need to climbed, stepped over or under, swung around, etc, in our day to day activities] in ways that make it easier to be healthy without requiring discipline. That’s how they do it in zoos."
It's been said that today we preach to first believe and then to follow, whereas Jesus said first "Follow me," and then belief came.
Counseling is based on "talk therapy," but there is a way of communicating without words, which would be through music, art, dance, massage, etc. If one can't talk about something, we act as if it "doesn't exist," whereas a whole realm of communication and reality is present in nonverbal ways.
When we feel "out of sorts," we can return to the rhythms and seasons of nature and of fellowship.
This post could not have come at a better time as my brain and heart have been circling around this very thing for a few days and I felt the disconnect most keenly today over my morning coffee - a time that is typically reserved for reading, writing and mediation. We recently moved and in the days and weeks leading up to the move I felt so very disconnected from any sense of place and I've yet to feel completely grounded in our new home. When I find myself drifting, I typically try and ignore it or spend my time on things that won't help me recalibrate - think head in the sand. I wish I could say there was a specific book or podcast that helps me reset but alas, I find I typically stumble around until I land on something that resonates and signals a longing to settle back into my practices. Having said that, I regularly gravitate to words that are gentle and soothing, like poetry. I'll re-read things like Nouwen or Ann Voskamp. I've been finding myself straying away from podcasts of late - they almost feel like information overload. Short, inspirational posts like this one, that offer an opportunity for dialogue are the most meaningful to me as I regain my rhythms. In all of the change these past weeks and months I have come up with a mantra of sorts to help me find my practices: while all these things in my life have changed, this one thing remains true, God has not changed. Thanks for this today Tim - these weary soul needed to feel less alone in her disonnectedness.
I always appreciate your posts, Tim. I’ve been in a very long season of struggling to find my rhythm again. It’s a long story, but the shortest version is, dealing with some deep hurts has been a slow work the last couple of years, and I *think* the revelation of these wounds is where the drift first began…now, as I’m making small, steady progress in healing, I’m finding my hunger for that deep intimacy and fellowship with God re-awakening. Podcasts help. Lectio Divina helps, art helps, and being outside in nature helps. I’m re-learning how to s l o w down, and be present where I am, and as I practice my own presence, I imagine God’s very real Presence with me. Imagining the companionship of God in my days has helped me remember that God really IS present. Thanks for sharing and encouraging the conversation. It helps.
I call it my cadence and this just happened to me as well. Coming off a family vacation with family members we see once a year and deeply love, but don't share our love for God. My cadence was off on my return to real life, it showed up in my actions, moving too quickly, checking items off my todo list, telling myself to slow down but not being able to. I believe the Holy Spirit corrected me, I got back to my early morning cadence of thankfulness, Chemex drip coffee (ok maybe coffee first!), prayer time with my Father, a morning devotional, time with my wife, time in the Word. I'm breathing normally again, my cadence is back!
I've been wondering if this has anything to do with seasons and brokenness of the perfect creation as it intersects with our speed and life direction? Change is always present, but not always atrophy. When I feel afraid or stuck, I'm most resistant to the discipline of rhythm (and I'm sure it looks like I'm losing a good habit). I don't know what specifically helps me regain the practice of learning and adjusting, I think it's something different and surprising each time. I also think it requires effort and re-starting momentum - any direction, just some movement - and then course corrections once underway. Whatever "it" is, it's external and it's relational. While the terms "self-improvement" and "self-help" can be well meaning, I haven't experienced either by myself. I appreciate the material that you labor to write and I don't know that there's a standardized format that would help me more, I need the interruption to my plodding along (or stalled out state) that comes with each e-mail update, often it's the right thing at the right time.
Maybe I'm reading into it, but sometimes it seems like modern marketing and "branding" ourselves means really covering the ground with a similar message over and over so there's something consistent and yet "new" for each follower. I think that's hard for a creative to do, when the message is *to change and to learn and to wonder*. And that message is meaningful when it has direction, momentum to share to those of us who are stuck. I think you posted in your IG stories something that gave me permission to believe that I don't have to "live life to the fullest" or whatever marketing message that I didn't even realize I had accepted and measured myself against until you interrupted it. So, thank you for your momentum and messages to pursue Jesus no matter what season I'm experiencing.
I am really interested in what others use to get out of the "drift". I've been in one for a few years and feel like I can't get my rhythm back. I have found some peace listening to the Holy Post podcast and also The Saturday Stoke. I needed the encouragement to unplug and that is very helpful.
I work at a SBC church and have been very discouraged. Coming from an executive level job in the pharma world to the church world has been eye opening. It has been a hard transition and not sure if it was worth it.
Not the happiest of posts but I do find encouragement in your writing and the emphasis on beauty and taking the time to recognize it.
This is something a guy named John Durant (of "Paleo Manifesto) wrote 8 years ago, which continues to haunt me:
"Habitats. People will shift away from trying to change their bad habits through willpower and discipline — like New Year’s resolutions — and increasingly focus on changing their physical habitats (bedrooms, kitchens, offices, and gyms) [meaning, for example, adding places which need to climbed, stepped over or under, swung around, etc, in our day to day activities] in ways that make it easier to be healthy without requiring discipline. That’s how they do it in zoos."
It's been said that today we preach to first believe and then to follow, whereas Jesus said first "Follow me," and then belief came.
Counseling is based on "talk therapy," but there is a way of communicating without words, which would be through music, art, dance, massage, etc. If one can't talk about something, we act as if it "doesn't exist," whereas a whole realm of communication and reality is present in nonverbal ways.
When we feel "out of sorts," we can return to the rhythms and seasons of nature and of fellowship.
These are just some strands of thoughts.