Civilians act quite differently than soldiers do-and thus get taken out when reality strikes. The structure and schedule of our life is always a reflection of what we believe is going on. Only if we allow God to respond and, you know, enter in to that response. Spending a few minutes in the morning in the silence of pre-dawn grays can be our daily input-but only if we really allow our heart to surface and pay attention to what it is doing. A walk in the woods or a bike ride or a run can be daily input, but they won’t be without effort. Lewis did not consider the day complete without his habitual walk outdoors. We must be even more intentional about securing on a daily basis. Eliot’s Four Quartets is like jumping into ice cold water, which has a wonderful and transforming effect.Īnd then there is beauty, which can be hugely restoring. Chesterton or Gerard Manley Hopkins can prove a fairly radical reorientation. A chapter or a page or even a few sentences by Dallas Willard or George MacDonald or G.K. Over the past few years, I’ve built the beginnings of a library in a cardboard box, most of which I’ve actually read. Using your morning coffee or commute to orient yourself to the overall story in which you are involved is a dangerous action. Also available on their very handy app.Īnd, it being the 21st century, I’m a huge fan of the podcast (which, by the way, Ransomed Heart also offers). The readings are good, and Jesus seems to be endlessly imaginative in using them to inform my own life and walk and (very small) kingdom. I can’t say how often Jesus has used a few paragraphs of participation in the larger story to intervene in the trajectory of my day. You can sign up, and it will be delivered to your inbox ever after. One of those is the Ransomed Heart “Daily Reading” which has the advantage of email. I’ve found a few resources to be especially useful. Daily input goes beyond the formulaic into the intentional. Programs can be helpful, but there’s an important distinction between a program and a rhythm to your life. I’m not merely talking about daily devotionals or one-year Bibles here, although those tools are useful. Input-rhythmic input-to prepare us to respond and live in the kind of desperate place our world is. The reality is this: in order to center ourselves in the real story going on-that is, the larger story of Jesus’ intervention against catastrophic odds-we need a kind of dailyness. Our worlds are more color and noise than that, and they have a disorienting effect in the face of which our few rhythms are hardly stabilizing. It’s not something we’re very good at, actually. The enormity of the story in which his life was situated required that he adopt a rhythm by way of restoration and orientation. Merton’s routine mimicked the discipline of a man in a war, and it revealed what he believed his story to be. Soldiers hardly know that kind of discipline. I admired its structure of solitude and silence and study, a routine uncompromising. Once I began reading, however, the point of fascination changed-it was the rhythm and orientation of his life. I found it fascinating because it seemed mystic and uncivil. A year ago, I came out of a wrestling match at a library book sale with a copy of Thomas Merton’s Seven Story Mountain, a monk’s autobiography.
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