In exploring the behaviors necessary to cultivate the Habits of a Flourishing Life, I find myself being extremely cautious about how much emphasis is placed on the self-reflective tasks necessary to engage in a Habit of Awareness. And yet, I firmly believe that for true transformation to occur, for us to become Christlike, we must courageously take a reflective peek into our hearts, allowing our identity in Him to anchor us to the character traits that truly matter. However, we must also confront the reality that our current culture is more interested in the rapid pace of achievement, accumulation, and doing rather than in engaging in slow, spiritual disciplines such as Reflective Practice.

This pilgrimage to research what it means to embrace a flourishing life, to attempt to arrive at a definition for all that the word implies, is leading down some fascinating paths which includes examining sources that appear over and over again, including Eugene Peterson’s A Long Obedience in the Same Direction. It is located in this work, originally written in 1980, that I read these words that apply today as much as they did when originally composed, “The reading style employed more often than not by contemporary Christians is fast, reductive, information-gathering and, above all, practical. We read for what we can get out of it, what we can put to use, what we think we can use—and right now. ‘We…we…we…we…’ all the way home.”

Now, my intent in cultivating a Habit of Awareness is to understand how uniquely God created each and every one of us, but I must caution that engaging in this work can easily lend itself to spending entirely too much time on the River We. “If we are serious about following Jesus and living out the gift of his life in detail in our bodies and circumstances, we must swim against this whitewater River We and familiarize ourselves with the world in which Jesus and his gift of love are revealed to us. We do it by reading our Scriptures slowly, imaginatively, prayerfully and obediently. Each adverb is important.” The pace of life Peterson describes in the 80s, I believe applies even more today, as technology is moving life forward at an unimaginable pace. The need to Take It Slow, to be intentional about who, where, and what we invest in, should be done slowly, imaginatively, prayerfully, and obediently.

“Slowly…We live in sin-cramped conditions, mostly conscious of ourselves—our feelings and frustrations, our desires and ideas, our achievements and discoveries, our failures and hurts…This is an immense world, and it takes time to adjust to the majesty—we’re not used to anything on this scale.”

“Imaginatively…We must let our conversations and experiences and thoughts be brought into the story so that we can observe what happens to us in this new context, through this story line, rubbing shoulders with these characters. We have picked up the bad habit of reducing what we find in the Bible to ideas or slogans or principles or out-of-context ‘verses.’ Forget the details; skip the mystery; we want a definition we can grasp and be comfortable with…Imagination is the capacity we have of crossing boundaries of space and time, with our senses intact, and entering into other God-revealed conversations and actions, finding ourselves at home in Bible country.”

“Prayerfully…the Bible is not primarily a source of information; it is one of the primary ways that God uses to speak to us…Are we listening? Are we answering? Bible reading is prayed reading.”

”Obediently…The Author of the book is writing us into his book, we aren’t writing him into ours. We find ourselves in the book as followers of Jesus. Jesus calls us to follow him and we obey—or we do not. This is an immense world of God’s salvation that we are entering; we don’t know enough to ‘apply’ anything. Our task is to obey, believingly, trustingly obey. Simply obey.”

Perhaps I’m the only one who finds it so difficult to resist the enticing temptation to take a ride down River We/Me. Yet, when I opt to ride the fast-paced rapids of the world around me rather than the slow, meandering tempo of Christ, I’m usually the one who misses out on something He is attempting to communicate with me. I’m the one refusing to Be Still and listen…but oh, when I do slowly, imaginatively, prayerfully, and obediently engage in a Listening Life, His whispers become clear and He shows me the path to a flourishing life!

What distractions of this world do you think makes it easy for us to follow the River We rather than the slower approach? Please feel free to share in the comments below.

Reference:

Peterson, E.H. (2000). A long obedience in the same direction: Discipleship in an instant society. IVP Books.