Slow Down and Savor
Are you simply engaging with the spiritual practices with the goal of getting it done as quickly as possible?
When I was young, my brother and I would sometimes have a friendly match of "speed reading" before bedtime. We would race to see which of us could read a passage of the Bible the fastest. Honestly, I don't ever recall any clear winners or losers in this game. But there was a reason why we did this. We were challenged by leaders in our church to read the Bible every day. It would be a good spiritual discipline for us to cultivate. My brother and I wanted to do this, but we had a problem: we thought it would be kind of boring. And so, we came up with this ingenious idea: we turned it into a game. Although it was fun to compete against each other racing through Old Testament passages, we obviously didn't get much value out of this practice. We weren't reading God's Word for the purpose of understanding and obeying it. We were speed reading it so that we could just complete the task as quickly as possible. It was a good strategy for getting the task done. It was a poor strategy, however, for increasing Biblical comprehension.
Are you simply engaging with the spiritual practices with the goal of getting it done as quickly as possible? Sometimes, we rush through our spiritual disciplines of prayer, reading God's Word, and worship. And as a consequence, we're not getting much value out of it. Here's a simple piece of advice: slow down and savor your times with God.
These days, I deliberately try to slow down my encounters with the Lord. I pray slower. I read God's Word slower. I worship slower. I try to savor the encounter with Christ rather than rushing through it. Why? Because the point of the spiritual practices is to deeply connect with Jesus. I'm cultivating a friendship with Him after all. When I'm rushing through the spiritual disciplines, I'm not really connecting properly. I'm just wanting for it to be over so that I can check a box off from my to-do list. If I really want to genuinely connect with Jesus, I will need to put in the time and intentionality to be viscerally present when doing so. In other words, I will need to slow down and savor my times with Him.
It's the same for any relationship. If you're hoping to connect with your spouse or child, you can't just rush the time you spend with them. That's not going to make for a great bonding experience for anybody. Instead, you will have to slow down the pace so that you can savor the moments with them. What we have with God is a relationship. It's a relationship that requires careful nurturing, not a rushed experience. So, the next time you're in prayer, consider slowing things down and bring your full self into the spiritual practice.
Barnabas the Monastic
Servant of Christ. Husband. Dad. Modern Monastic. I have a wild ambition in life: get as close to the Lord Jesus Christ as I can while on earth. I explore and integrate ancient Christian monk wisdom in modern everyday life. Lives in Canada.
