Turning Information into Insights
Contemplation is a less painful way of receiving insights.
Pastors and Christian leaders are purveyors of spiritual insights. We want to help people live a life that is most pleasing to God. We want to help them serve effectively in God's Kingdom work. One of the things we do to achieve that end is deliver spiritual insights to people that they can hopefully use in their everyday lives. But how do we get these insights in the first place for ourselves and for us to offer to other people?
One of the primary ways we receive insights is through conflict. When information passes through conflict, it produces insight.* Until it passes through conflict, information is simply information. Let me give an example. My son is at an age where he just loves to explore. He's climbing on sofas. Ducking under tables. He's attempting to run faster than his short legs can handle. It's all very cute—until somebody starts crying. As a parent, I find myself warning him all the time that he's going to hit something or bump his head. Does he listen to me? Not really. It's all just information to him until he encounters real conflict: he bumps his head on the table. Prior to the conflict, it was just random information from papa. But after the conflict, it becomes a valuable insight after a moment of reflection ("Ouch, that really hurts and I shouldn't do that again!"). By observing and reflecting on information (i.e. the Bible) that passes through conflict we experience in life, we can gain quite a bit of insights that will help us live better for Jesus. As a bonus, we might even get to share these insights with others.
There's also a way to hack the insight producing process. Usually, times of conflict are out of our control. We're left waiting for conflict to arrive (and for sure, there are plenty of conflicts headed our way) or we can purposely create conflict (which is not ideal for obvious reasons). However, there's a way to retrieve insights without necessarily going through the pain of conflict. Instead of having information pass through conflict, we can have information pass through contemplation. With contemplation, we're thinking through how a piece of information might be used in various situations and we're reflecting on the consequences if we did something that was particularly unwise.
Imagine what would happen if my son wouldn't simply dismiss the information I was providing him ("You're going to bump your head and it's going to hurt!") and instead sat down for a moment to think through what I was saying and how it might apply to his life? Imagine what would happen if he would even journal about this as a way of reflecting on it? He could possibly gain right away the insight that bumping his head on the table is going to really hurt. He will hopefully then avoid doing so, saving himself some trouble. By utilizing contemplation, He could possibly receive insight without having to get hurt in the process. Contemplation is a less painful way of receiving insights and one that we can do immediately without having to wait for conflict to arrive.
That is why reflection and journaling are key spiritual practices to grow in your spiritual life. They will help us receive incredible insights from the Lord that will aid us in living better for Him in our everyday lives.
*The original idea came from the Christian comedian Michael Jr., who did a comedy bit at the 2023 Global Leadership Summit. He said that conflict is necessary so that information can become revelation.
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.
