Experiment in transformation
Have you ever experienced this: you sit down in the morning to spend some time in Scripture and prayer, you read something that seems powerful, you are determined to apply that principle to your life for the day, you go about the business of the rest of your day, you sit down in the evening and realize that the passage that was so powerful to you that same morning never entered your mind again the rest of the day.
That happens to me more often than not. Life is busy. We find ourselves playing hard...working hard...and from time to time even resting hard. And as Christians it almost as if we have this separate category for "spiritual time". That time comes in the morning from 6:30-7:00am and doesn't come up again until the next day...from 6:30-7:00am. What's wrong with this picture?
I am a follower of Christ...a contemporary disciple. That means that my life should be defined by my "followship" of him. Everything I do should illustrate that fact. There should be no separation in my life of the spiritual and the other stuff...no separate categories when I peruse my mental (or actual) schedule for the day.
I'm thinking about doing a little experiment to see if I can solve this problem. I need Scripture, a Biblical context, to be a much greater part of my entire day. So, I'm going to try to have whatever passage I'm looking at in the morning (or let's say, if I'm preparing to preach, etc) as the "theme passage" for my day. My plan is to re-visit that passage frequently throughout the day. I haven't decided what that frequency will be yet but I'm leaning toward every 3 hours. That means I'm going to try to read through that passage every 3 hours or so throughout the day.
What do I expect to gain from this experiment? Transformation. Through the de-compartmentalization of my life I expect to experience the power of God greater in all areas of my life. I expect the mind of Christ, in me, to flourish as I remain connected to Him throughout the day. Again, transformation.
One thing I will add, in case anyone else is interested in taking part in this "experiment" is that it is extremely easy to turn something like this into legalism. It's easy to begin thinking that we're better than someone else if we're reading the Bible more often throughout the day. Or conversely, that we're terrible people if we haven't kept up with our reading schedule and "failed" (in our own minds). God is interested in our hearts. When we get that right the other stuff works itself out.
Today's the first day...I'll try to blog again in a week or so and let you know how this goes. If you want you can drop me a note and ask how it's going...that would be some great accountability!
That happens to me more often than not. Life is busy. We find ourselves playing hard...working hard...and from time to time even resting hard. And as Christians it almost as if we have this separate category for "spiritual time". That time comes in the morning from 6:30-7:00am and doesn't come up again until the next day...from 6:30-7:00am. What's wrong with this picture?
I am a follower of Christ...a contemporary disciple. That means that my life should be defined by my "followship" of him. Everything I do should illustrate that fact. There should be no separation in my life of the spiritual and the other stuff...no separate categories when I peruse my mental (or actual) schedule for the day.
I'm thinking about doing a little experiment to see if I can solve this problem. I need Scripture, a Biblical context, to be a much greater part of my entire day. So, I'm going to try to have whatever passage I'm looking at in the morning (or let's say, if I'm preparing to preach, etc) as the "theme passage" for my day. My plan is to re-visit that passage frequently throughout the day. I haven't decided what that frequency will be yet but I'm leaning toward every 3 hours. That means I'm going to try to read through that passage every 3 hours or so throughout the day.
What do I expect to gain from this experiment? Transformation. Through the de-compartmentalization of my life I expect to experience the power of God greater in all areas of my life. I expect the mind of Christ, in me, to flourish as I remain connected to Him throughout the day. Again, transformation.
One thing I will add, in case anyone else is interested in taking part in this "experiment" is that it is extremely easy to turn something like this into legalism. It's easy to begin thinking that we're better than someone else if we're reading the Bible more often throughout the day. Or conversely, that we're terrible people if we haven't kept up with our reading schedule and "failed" (in our own minds). God is interested in our hearts. When we get that right the other stuff works itself out.
Today's the first day...I'll try to blog again in a week or so and let you know how this goes. If you want you can drop me a note and ask how it's going...that would be some great accountability!
posted by Michael Shattuck at
1:05 AM
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