Week 23: The Spiritual Discipline of Study
Weekly Digital Detox Reflections
Peace be with you lovely readers! Welcome to The Endeavor. We are now 23 weeks into our 52-week project of weekly digital detox reflections. If you’re new here, this is how it works, in brief. Every single day, I have a routine that keeps my use of digital technology low. I use my phone as little as I can during the day and even have days set aside during the week when I do not allow myself to stream music, podcasts, or audiobooks. Every day when I get home from work, the phone goes in its designated spot, and stays there until I have to charge it or until I use it the following day. Every night, well, most nights, at 6:30 pm, my wife and I turn all digital devices off. This is the most difficult part of the routine. We have two very young children and sometimes out of exhaustion and frankly laziness, we give in and watch PBS with my daughter. We try to keep this to a minimum. We fluctuate in our consistency with this rule but we are trending in the right direction. During the weekend, my smartphone stays put and we follow the same evening rules turning all digital devices off at 6:30 pm. This routine keeps me mostly free from the distraction of digital technology and allows me to be present and attentive in all aspects of life. I then use some time every week to write about my reflections and experiences, post them here, and hope that I can encourage others to consider a digital detox of their own. If you’re a recent subscriber, you came at an exciting time.
I have been inspired recently by an article named “Tech in the Family Home” by the incredible
. Without giving too much away, Lane makes the case for figuring out what one may add to their life or home before subtracting digital tech. When we remove an addiction or a crutch before adding healthy support, we are doomed to fail. Almost in tandem with Lane, I found similar inspiration when reading the profound and equally profound husband who have recently been helping readers recognize the need to disconnect from digital technology and have been providing excellent practical ideas to help them do so.
I love the practicality of these resources and have been inspired to offer suggestions with an emphasis on our spiritual lives which brings us to this current series on Spiritual Disciplines. We’re currently three weeks into a 12-week series where each week, we reflect on one Spiritual Discipline that one may consider adding to their life. My goal is to make the case that these spiritual disciplines are as practical and applicable as any of the other suggestions you find in the articles above.
This week’s digital detox reflections are structured a bit differently. I’ll dive straight into this week’s spiritual discipline before giving a personal progress report. The disciplines of meditation, prayer, and fasting have each been integrated into my routine and it will only make sense to address any progress that’s been made after we dive into this week's topic, the Spiritual Discipline of Study.
Where My Thoughts Have Been
The purpose of the Spiritual Disciplines is the total transformation of the person. They aim at replacing old destructive habits of thought with new life-giving habits. Nowhere is this purpose more clearly seen than the Discipline of study. The apostle Paul tells us that we are transformed through the renewal of the mind (Rom. 12:2). The mind is renewed by applying it to those things that will transform it.
Richard J. Foster, Celebration of Discipline.
What is Study
Study is a discipline where careful, intentional attention is given to various aspects of reality to move your mind in a certain direction. “Remember, the mind will always take on an order confirming to the order upon which it concentrates” (Foster, 63). Consider when one studies learning to drive. You study the rules of the road. You start riding with others, paying careful attention to the signs and signals. You then practice driving various vehicles (assuming you have family or friends brave enough to help you ) to get a feel for the road, the car, and how things work. With concentration, perception, and repetition, you embody various habits of driving. Before you know it, you take a couple of tests, and voilà, you’re driving! The discipline of study focused your attention and moved you from the passenger seat to the driver’s seat. When you think about it, many of the things we consider mundane are things that require study.
A child learning to read must study a tremendous amount before becoming fluent. Mastering a recipe requires study. Learning how to do laundry requires study. Re-learning how to do laundry when you get married because your lovely new spouse is way more particular than you, requires difficult study. If study is critical in these most practical aspects of our lives, consider its importance in your inward spiritual life. Again, these embodied habits will conform to the order of what you are studying. “What we study determines the habits formed, which is why Paul urges us to focus on things that are true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, and gracious (Phil 4:8, Foster, 64). If we believe the mind, body, soul, and spirit are connected, we must understand what we give our attention to, and what we focus on, will affect our lives on every level. It is important to note here the distinction between meditation and study. When we meditate, we give attention to God in terms of devotion. When we study, we give our attention to God and godly things so we may analyze them and learn. The two disciplines are closely related but are different experiences.
Four Steps for Study
The first of the four steps of study is repetition. Repetition repeatedly focuses the mind in a particular direction until those particular habits of thought become ingrained. Repetition, when used for the age-old learning methods of recitation and memorization has become unpopular and even criticized by educators who would rather teach “critical thinking.” One might wonder, however, if students do not have a foundation of knowledge and understanding gained through thoughtful memorization and recitation, what will they have to “think critically” through? Anyway, this notion of repetition conforming our minds and therefore changing our behavior is one reason Christ in scripture and through the tradition of the church has encouraged believers to repeat certain prayers. Take the Lord’s Prayer for example.
“After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.”
Matthew 6:9-13 KJV
When we make a habit of praying this prayer multiple times a day, it becomes a way of studying God. We hallow or revere His holiness. We analyze that His Kingdom and His will are to be down, not ours here as it is in heaven. We realized He is our substance. We realize that we both need to be forgiven and that we need to forgive. We voice our need to flee our temptations and to be delivered from the snares of the evil one. And we pray all of this in the name we have already established to be revered, Jesus. This is the essence of the life of the Christian, which is why we are taught to repeat it. After walking for some time in the way of repetition we will be ready for the next step of study which is concentration.
Concentration is to be added to what the mind is repeating to increase learning about whatever the topic may be. Concentration further focuses our attention and centers our minds on what is being studied. Human beings have an incredible ability to concentrate despite the overwhelming number of things pulling at our attention. However, our culture, or The Machine, or the evil one, (or both?) has done its damndest to undermine our ability to concentrate. Distraction is the rule of thumb today.
Most people today wake up, grab their smartphone, and start tinkering with it before they answer nature’s morning call. Many use their phone to scroll through social media or look at emails as they answer that morning call and this sets the tone for the day. Whether we drive to work or work from home, we often spend the rest of the day with one, two, three, or four plus screens on all coming at us with distinct stimuli, there’s probably music or a podcast playing somewhere on a screen or a device you may or may not be looking at and even when work is over, the screens stay on so we can scroll through social media some more before we take the phone with us to the bedroom and charge it, all the while never letting any device or screen out of our sight all day long. For most people, there is not even a five-minute period where we are focused on a singular thing. We must get control of what we are repeating and learn to concentrate on particular things of value so that we can understand what we ought to be studying, which leads to the third step of the discipline of study, comprehension.
“When we not only repeatedly focus the mind in a particular direction, centering our attention in the subject, but understand what we are studying, we reach a new level (Foster, 65). Comprehension of our studies is what changes information about a subject into knowledge of a subject. We can have loads and loads of information about a subject but until we comprehend what we’re studying it is of extremely limited use. This is especially true in the life of a Christian. We can read the Bible from cover to cover, memorize the Ten Commandments, learn theological concepts, and recite Scripture day in and day out, but until we comprehend the love that Jesus has for us and then behave in obedience with love, all we have is information. Even the faintest notion of comprehension of the love of Christ moves us from having Christian information to living as a Christian. I understand there are aspects of God that are beyond our understanding (Phil. 4:7) but we can indeed know His love for us.
“And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love him, because he first loved us.”
1 John 4:16-19 KJV
After comprehension is achieved we may then move to the next step of study, which is reflection.
“Although comprehension defines what we are studying, reflection defines the significance of what we are studying(Foster, 66). Time spent in reflection allows us to comprehend not only what we’re studying means for the world, but what it means to us personally. For true reflection, we must conduct our studies with humility. We submit ourselves as students with open eyes and ears in hopes we will improve our lives by embodying what we’ve learned.
For too many of us, our lives display time studying the ways of the world. Through social we repeatedly subject our minds to the vanities of the moment and allow ourselves to become envious of a life we’re not even sure is being portrayed in truth. We concentrate our attention on shows or movies that glorify violence and sexual promiscuity. From here we comprehend life as a pursuit of happiness which can only be obtained if we give into our passions and fulfill every whim and want. Yet upon reflection, we typically find that a life lived in these ways leads not to happiness, but to broken homes and broken people. We must hereby add the study of what is good, noble, true, and beautiful and subtract the false promises of our contemporary age.
What to Study
As a Christian, I will of course urge you to study in a way that places Christ at the center of your life.
Study the Holy Scriptures. Pick any passage you want and follow the four steps of study. I have no doubt that should you do this with a humble heart and mind, God will honor your efforts and bless you.
Buy the book I’m using as a guide for this series, “The Celebration of Discipline” by Richard J. Foster, and study each discipline.
Study the history of the Christian church. Doing so will introduce you to men and women of faith you’ve probably never heard of. You will also learn about the brutal persecutions the early church faced and be amazed by God’s blessing for the Church despite such persecution.
Study the liturgical traditions of the Church. For those of you like me, you will discover rich ways of living that incorporate corporate fasts, feasts, celebrations, prayers, and readings Christians have historically participated in together as a community. You will come away with a better understanding of the true connection we share as brothers and sisters in Christ. For starters, check out the incredible work being done at Signs+Seasons. This will serve you well as a gentle introduction to liturgical living.
If you’d like to expand your studies beyond strictly the Christian or spiritual domain, have at it! God is so great and Holy that you can study any number of subjects that are not spiritual and still be led to further devotion to Christ.
Study music! Be careful here to pick music that does not denigrate what is good, but pick a genre or an artist and study the music. Leave it on repeat. Recite through playing, singing, or humming what you’re hearing. Learn to identify every instrument being played. Analyze what the bass is doing, really listen to the rhythm guitar, hone in on the melody, and learn the pattern. Slow down and listen in a way you never have before.
Study art
Study architecture
Study Sports and a particular sport.
Study baking.
Study birds.
Study health and wellness
Pick one topic you’re interested in but unfamiliar with and study it as best you can. You do not have to be a scholar to study these things.
We live in an age with almost unlimited access and information about just about any subject you can think of. Go to a library or a bookstore, pick up a book for beginners, and get started. When you inevitably use YouTube, Spotify, or any other streaming service, instead of watching or listening to nonsense that will tear away at your soul, pick a spiritual discipline or whatever else you’ve chosen to study and find a podcast or an educational video or lecture from a professor. Take some control and put your digital devices to work for your good.
I truly believe that no matter what you choose to study, as long as you do so with humility, and with intent to glorify God, your life will be better for having added these things as you subtract the mindless, violent, and pornographic content that is decimating our society.
This concludes the reflections on Spiritual Disciplines which focus on the inward life of an individual. Next week we will begin exploring disciplines that focus our attention outward.
Progress Report
Progress in terms of my use of digital technology has been so-so. I've been very good at staying away from my phone but my wife and I have honestly struggled to firmly enforce the rule of turning screens off by 6:30 each night. With a 2-year-old and a 6-month-old, it’s just easy and convenient to leave the TV on when my daughter wants to watch Dinosaurs Train. We’ve discovered it is easier to deny her TV time in the evening if we also are strict about TV time during the day. When we keep the TV off and keep her occupied with play, painting, or reading, she forgets about the TV. It seems counterintuitive that the solution to limited screen time is more limited screen time but this seems to be working for us so we’re going with it.
Progress in terms of adding these Spiritual Disciplines to my life as I subtract digital technology has been beneficial yet intense. As of this week, I have started to work meditation, prayer, and fasting into my routine. I feel simultaneously more sinful and yet more receptive to the grace of God than ever before. These disciplines have revealed to me patterns of sinful thoughts and behaviors within me which I’ve been blind to. They have also revealed to me that my fellow brothers and sisters, both in and out of Christ, are suffering from similar sins. This has softened my heart. In moments where I’ve usually been quick to cast judgment, I pause and remember that this person I see who is amid sin is made In the image of God. They deserve just as much grace and mercy as anyone else. If God can forgive them, so can I. If God can extend grace and mercy to them, so can I. Please pray for me, my family, and each other as we continue to explore these spiritual disciplines. Conforming ourselves to the will and way of our Lord Jesus is painful and difficult, but is made easier when we choose to endeavor together. Peace and blessings to you lovely readers. See you all next week in the New Year.
Benediction
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon us, we sinners.
Thank you for reading! Do your best to disconnect from the artificial, and connect with others.
And as always,
Keep thy head cool and thine eyes true.
Howard Pyle, Man of Iron
Scripture of the Week
“These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so. Therefore many of them believed; also of honourable women which were Greeks, and of men, not a few.”
Acts 17:11-12 KJV
Word of the Week
(noun) Survey- a general review, examination, or description of someone or something.
Example: Take time to survey the good, true, and beautiful. Your life will be better for having done so.
Why survey? It’s just a good word.
Music of the Week
For Unto Us A Child Is Born- Tim Zimmerman and The King’s Brass