Have you ever been at your wit’s end? This college professor who dearly adores her students is befuddled, bewildered, baffled, perplexed, and mystified about how to encourage students to Pay Attention to verbal instructions and information offered in class. Consider this scenario and how you might have prepared for the class activity: One week prior to the class discussion, I shared verbally in class the name of an article, the publication, and which day of the following week the discussion was to take place, allowing time over the weekend to read the lengthy article. I then proceeded to email a copy of the article to students and posted the article to their online course that same day. During the class period before discussion, I again showed an example of a printed copy of the article as a reminder. In light of all this instruction, whose responsibility is it here to Pay Attention? How much of the burden is on me to explain things well and how much accountability should fall on the students?

Now, perhaps this bewildered professor was slightly sensitive to the importance of Paying Attention because she had been intriguingly captivated during a recent reading of Leighton Ford’s The Attentive Life. Amazon uses this description for Ford’s book: “Your attention, please. That’s what God wants…It’s the path to becoming like Christ. Distractions, fear and busyness were keeping Ford from seeing God’s work in and around him…So he began a journey of longing and looking for God. And it started with paying attention.” So, should I practice the same patience with my students that God gives me? Viewing Emerging Adults’ lives through this lens, I launched into a series of internal questions concerning what factors might be distracting students from Paying Attention in class.

Although I’m still awaiting an insightful solution to effectively guiding this young flock to Pay Attention (please feel free to offer suggestions below), I am being personally faced with the greater importance of the attentiveness I give to God each day. If I truly desire to feel the Power of His Presence, should I not be intentionally offering Him my attention? Why am I so easily distracted by the things of this world that I opt out of the opportunity to have continual conversation with the Creator of the world? Sure, I may start my day with a devotional time and prayer, but what about all the secular parts of everyday life? I do “pray” that the crazy driver in the left lane doesn’t run over me, but is that really an intentional effort to Pay Attention to my Lord and Savior? Focused attention on the driver, maybe! Focused attention in God, probably not.

What echoes through Ford’s book is that he describes how I can apply the rich monastic tradition of praying the hours to help me Pay Attention to God’s work in me and around me each day and in different Seasons of Life. Ford’s simple, but intentional, suggestions offer a practical approach to fighting the Continuous Partial Attention that plagues my life so much in our current digital age. Ford shares, “It has been helpful to me to have certain prayers to use at different ‘hours’ of the day, prayers which speak to and from my own heart, prayers which aid me in carrying on a ‘continual conversation’ with God—or, to be quite honest, a conversation which is often interrupted and must be restarted. These come from a variety of sources across the ages and are a personal selection of prayers that have helped me to be recalled to attentiveness.” He goes on to share specific Psalms or prayers for the canonical hours during the day when we might intentionally pause and Pay Attention in prayer: Lauds (early morning), Prime (morning), Terce (mid-morning), Sext (noon), None (early afternoon), Vespers (sunset), and Compline (end of day).

Ford’s insight on focused prayer has me pondering perhaps altering the Habit of Awareness to become the Habit of Attentiveness because cultivating a habit that encourages us to Pay Attention to God, others, the world around us, and yes, even college professors providing instructions, seems to better capture the essence of who God desires us to be. Are there situations where you find it difficult to Pay Attention? What strategies help you to refocus, in class or in prayer? Please consider sharing in the comments below. Who knows, a student might read this and become inspired!

Reference:

Ford, L. (2008). The attentive life: discerning god’s presence in all things (Ser. Formatio). IVP Books.