We have choices to make every second of every day. We think most of them are trivial, and yet they all add up to become habits and lifestyles. The small choices we make today can have big implications for our daily life and our well being.
What does it look like to live deliberately and intentionally? I watched a sermon by a pastor at a church in Portland, Oregon, who talked about slowing down. He talked about how living deliberately means to stop racing the clock. We will never have enough time, even if we added ten hours to each day, as the pastor put it. But we can make time for the things that are important by cutting out the things that aren’t- the things that drain our mind, body, and soul.
Since my summer in Bellingham, I have felt a strong pull on my heart to go back to the basics- with what I eat, what I wear, how I spend my time, and what I focus my heart on. It’s a call back to my natural self; the self that is in harmony with Jesus, living the “unforced rhythms of grace.” It is living “freely and lightly”- completely countercultural. Swimming upstream. Eliminating those things in our lives that are harmful to our spirits, whether that is processed food (our bodies are temples) or obsessively checking our smartphones every two minutes. The things that we consider part of our daily lives, dictated by our consumerist, manic culture, are actually killing our souls. We have never been more anxious, depressed, or lonely.
What is the answer? Living deliberately the way Jesus lived. Doing one thing at a time; living completely in the present, unafraid of what is to come. Not rushing through our daily activities, but leaning fully into them. Being aware and awake. I want to be awake. I want to be alive and free and joyful and new. That is the promise when we take up our cross, and the yoke is easy, the burden is light. Living like Jesus is not a chore- its a cure. Its a cure to our insane culture that is sucking the lives out of us.
Put down your phone and take up your cross.
Matthew 11:28-30
rhythms of grace 