Letting Up?

I love to use "Summer time" as my excuse for not doing very well with my weight management! You know, too many snacks and too little exercise. It's a story told a million times over, right? When it's 90 degrees plus, it's hard to get motivated to put on the walking shoes and do that 20 minute exercise thing. A bowl of ice cream sounds so inviting on a Summer evening. At age 50, my body doesn't forgive me the way it used to. But, I still want to 'let up' on the discipline... it just feels so natural. The results are not so nice!

Some of us 'fall apart' spiritually in the Summer time for the same reason; we just 'let up.' Churches, historically, observe a 'summer slump' in attendance as people choose the beach, backyard BBQ's, and extra time to sleep in over getting to worship services. Bibles collect dust as daily routines are set aside, and with them, the regular intake of the Word. Time in prayer suffers as we spend more time pursuing leisure activities. As spiritual disciplines are neglected, our spirits starve and grow weak, giving the sinful nature occasion to show up and influence our thoughts, words, and actions.

Let me be positive and suggest that there are ways to 'change the pace' without abandoning our disciplines!

Here are a few suggestions--

1. Make Sunday morning special by getting up a earlier and going out for breakfast on the way to church, or even better, make plans to have a picnic lunch with another family from your church following the service.
2. Buy a new translation of the Bible and use the Summer months to read through several of those books you don't get to very often - Jeremiah, Deuteronomy, the Kings... perhaps you will read a little less in your Bible, but do some research along the way. God can use more obscure texts to feed your spirit, too!
3. Take a 'prayer walk' through your neighbor once a week, actively praying for those who live around you.
4. While on vacation, instead of just skipping out on church worship, go to a church of a very different tradition. Don't go to criticize, but rather to see how God touches people using different forms of worship. This is a really wonderful way to teach your children about the breadth of God's church!
5. Write your daily prayers for a week! You might be inspired to broaden or deepen your conversation with the Lord.

6. Meet with the Lord in a different place occasionally. Drive to the park, walk by a river, hike into the woods, sit out in your backyard late in the evening - and let Him speak to your heart in those places.

What's worked for you, helping you to stay motivated with your practice of spiritual disciplines? I'd love to know and might even write another TFTD about this!

Faithfulness to the practices the keep our hearts in touch with the Spirit is important. Be careful about being bound by the 'religious rules.' It is all too easy to confuse doing things like reading the Bible, saying prayers, and going to church with being spiritual! I do not mean to suggest, for one moment, that you should take some spiritual pride in your regular practice of these things. But, they remain vital to us as means of God's voice being heard over the noise of day to day living! Just doing these disciplines doesn't mean a thing unless we engage our heart and listen. That said, there is a place to make a choice of the will to get up and get going... just like I must do if I want to keep my body healthy. It isn't about what feels good in the moment; it is about what becomes possible because we make the right choice today- again tomorrow, and again, the day after that.

"Do you see what this means—...It means we’d better get on with it.
Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in.
Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: cross, shame, whatever. And now he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God.
When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!" (Hebrews 12:1-3, The Message)