Forming Resilient Rhythms
The first step towards forming a resilient rhythm is to be actively embodying and practising it. Sounds simple right?
Well, in 2021, it’s probably not.
Neil Postman, the author of ‘Amusing Ourselves to Death’, suggested that many people are LIARs. Before you take that too personally, hear me out—it’s an acronym he coined that stands for Low Information to Action Ratio. When talking about this, Postman says; “Prior to the age of telegraphy, the information-action ratio was sufficiently close so that most people had a sense of being able to control some of the contingencies in their lives. What people knew about had action-value. In the information world created by telegraphy, this sense of potency was lost, precisely because the whole world became the context for news. Everything became everyone's business. For the first time, we were sent information which answered no question we had asked.”
It’s hauntingly accurate, but even more so when you know the year that Postman published this work in: 1985. If this was his assessment a quarter of a century ago, I can only imagine what he’d say today. We have more information available in our pockets than we’re able to cope with, and the result is often inaction. There’s a limited amount of knowledge that we can act upon, meaning that even if we nod our head in agreement at something we hear, we’re often given no choice but to remain inactive.
If we want to make our rhythms resilient, we need to act on the information revealed to us by God in His word. In light of Barna’s research, David Kinnaman—author of Faith for Exiles—says that ‘if you want to be a resilient disciple, you’ve got to do more than attend worship. You have to engage in other spiritually formative practices.’
So, how do we avoid being LIARs and put this information into practice?
I want to suggest five simple ways that you can go about implementing any new rhythm into your life. They’re adapted from James Clear’s helpful book, Atomic Habits, and should be taken as a guideline rather than a set of rules. I’ve used these personally and found them helpful within the context of grace. I’ll refer back to these regularly as we continue to talk about implementing other rhythms as well.
Start SMALL: the art of ‘showing up’ is often more formative in the beginning than the practice itself. Establish your rhythms before you try to improve them.
Give your rhythms a SPACE and TIME: when you’re specific about the place and time in which you intend to implement your rhythms, you allow them to live in the real world. It’s not about making rules, but about creating space for them to be embodied regularly.
Adapt your habits to bring you JOY: there is a version of every spiritual practice that will work for each of us. Your life is unique, so adapt. It might not happen well right away. It might take perseverance. It might mean some trial and error. Ask God to guide you in this process!
Craft your ENVIRONMENT: your physical surroundings matter, and only you know what will allow you to thrive. Craft your surroundings to help and not hinder your rhythms. James Clear says that your ‘environment is the invisible hand that shapes human behaviour’, so consider what is around you and alter it as you need to.
Love the PROCESS, not the product: sometimes we can get down on ourselves when we don’t read as much as we’d planned, pray as often as we’d set out to, or miss church, rest or bible study altogether. The ‘output’ is less important than what God is doing through those things. Love the process, not the product.
I don’t believe there’s any special set of tips or tricks that make a rhythm foolproof, but I do believe that heeding practical wisdom is a way of stewarding the gifts of grace that God has given us. We’re creatures of habit, and by understanding simple things that can help us and then putting them into practice it gives glory to Jesus and, God-willing, allows us to abide more fully in him too.
If you’d like to have a go at implementing this now, then pick one of the rhythms in your life this week to reflect on, and ask yourself these two questions:
Do I have a plan to practice this rhythm?
Do I need to alter my plan to help me grow more in Christ?
And then pray about it!
