Gifts for the Mind

A trio of ideas came my way this week—all good ones for beginning a new year. So, I want to take a break from my thoughts from the Letter to the Hebrews and pass these helps on to you.

First, my good friend Steve Brown, in the midst of a long vigil at his dying mother’s bedside, shared with me that is he has been stopping three times a day to deliberately focus on God. Then I read a tweet from another old friend encouraging us to all pick one word that would give us direction for the new year. He added a recommendation to read his daughter’s new blog post. Clicking on the link, I found encouragement to stop other things for five minutes, several times a day, for spiritual contemplation.

I realized how without any effort on my part, I had been graciously shown how to keep changing and renewing my mind. So, after considering several options for a word for the year, I selected: “wait,” as in “Be still before Yahweh and wait patiently for him” (Psalm 37:7). Then, I began stopping at least three times a day, taking five minutes each time to do nothing but focus on God, the life of love he calls us to live, or on my word “wait.”   

I can’t yet tell you what a month of this is like, but I am already giving thanks for a good plan that is connecting me with perspective and power, It will take some commitment and discipline, but I am eager. If you can gain from this, all the better.