Archives For rhythm

Rhythms for Lent

Chris —  March 11, 2011

Here’s My List

Fasting:

1) Facebook Although you’ll see autoposts from the blog, you’ll have to call or email if you want to talk.

2) Twitter Again, you’ll see some autoposts.  I’ll occassionally log on to maintain @austinplantr.

3) Hot Showers This is one that was suggested to me last year by a mentor named Jeff.  Jesus never took a hot shower, and neither do most people in the rest of the world.

4) Buying Food at Work That means being a lot more intentional…and maybe even brewing coffee.

5) Non-Social TV or Movies If I’m watching with friends, that’s one thing, but no more late night Dr. Who binges.

Prayer:

1) I’ll be using Phyllis Tickle’s Exploring Faith website and iPhone app to pray the hours.

2) Stepping up my prayer journaling

3) Taking requests!

Service:

I still haven’t really figured this one out.  There’s a homeless gathering I bike past everyday, and that’s a good place to start.  I also want to be more intentional about serving my coworkers.

Other:

I’ll be revisiting my previous ideals I suggested in February.

Are you practicing Lent?  If so, why and how?

Related Post: Why We Need Lent

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Rhythms for February

Chris —  February 2, 2011

I’m exploring developing a rhythm and rule of life.  Here’s what I’m aiming at in February.  In a month, I’ll let you know how it’s going:

Spiritual

Read the Gospels every day. When I read Ed Dobson’s The Year of Living Like Jesus, I was struck by a comment the Ed received from his Jewish friends, basically along the lines of “how can you call Jesus your rabbi and not study his words daily?”  So this year, I hope to start each day by reading a chapter or two of the gospels every day.  Once I get through all four, I plan to mix it up with different translations and maybe some word studies.

Journal daily. Writing’s a big deal for me, but it’s kind of haphazard.  Journaling is where I put my thoughts in order, or at least where I force myself to think through what I’ve been ignoring.  Journaling is also the main way I pray.  As I get better at this, I hope to develop other daily writing rhythms.

Physical

Keep a clean work area. I’ve never been a tidy guy.  My hope is, that by changing that, I can create a personal culture of organization that flows into other areas of life.

Work out every day. Right now this isn’t too tough because I’m biking everywhere.  But I’m in desperate need of some core training and flexibility.

Social

Go deeper with what you’ve got. I’m a part of a great church community, have co-workers I love, some great roommates and even a few old friends.  However, I have lacked the intentionality of really developing those relationships.  Let the happy hours and dinner parties ensue.

Drop in. One area of my life that is lacking is “drop in” relationships.  The kind where you just make a quick phone call or knock on the door for dinner.  My goal is to spend regular time “dropping in” on the people around me.

Romantic. I don’t plan on being single for life.  This means meeting more ladies who love Jesus.  Which probably means mixing up my rhythm and trying new things.  I’m not sure how to make this a “practice.”

Academic

Stay ahead. Have you ever tried working full time and going to graduate school?  It’s not ideal.  To make it happen, I’m trying to devote one day a week to completing the following week’s work, always staying a week ahead.

Personal

Sabbath. I love Sundays,  When I stay ahead, Sundays become monumentally lazy times of sleeping in, worshipping with my church community, eating too much, napping, and playing games.  When I miss a Sunday, the following week is almost unbearable.

Read. This is going to be a tough one, since so much of what I am doing for school is made up of reading.  But I fully intend to throw in books of personal interest and unashamed escapism.

Do new fun things. Most of my free time in Austin has been spent running and biking, swing dancing and eating at new places.  All of these are good, but I desperately need to mix it up.  On my to do list is: see more independent films, and take in a Roller Hockey game.

What practices keep you going and growing?  What suggestions do you have to develop a rhythmic life?

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Check Your Heartbeat

Chris —  January 28, 2011

Rhythm is the basic building block of the universe.  Waves, particles and atoms move in rhythm.  The planets turn.  The sun rises and sets.  Your heart thumps, your blood pulses, your lung pump.  We are creatures of rhythm, living in a universe that is conducted by an unseen maestro.

Yet my own life is lacking in rhythm.  I wake up one day at noon, the next at five am.  I go months without speaking to friends.  I pray sporadically and read my Bible at random.  I get excited to work out for two weeks and then get distracted by my queues on Netflix and Hulu.

One of the biggest challenge to my own personal, spiritual and career growth is becoming a person of discipline.  In other words, living my life in rhythm.  It doesn’t help that we live in a 24 hour culture, and I work a job that has no sense of weekend.  So here’s what I’m doing about it.

1. Start small.  In reading a short article about developing discipline, I realized that my room and workspace were a disaster.  I set a small, measurable goal: Make your bed, every day.  The hope is, that by developing some basic cleanliness habits (about 20 years late…) I will start keeping other areas of my life organized.

2.  Track everything.  My friend John turned me on to the story of how Jerry Seinfeld uses a giant calendar to mark his daily writing.  I’m using the Streaks app to track how many days in a row I actually do the things that are important to me.

In 2010 I had a lot of goals.  While I still have a few for 2011, I am more concerned about developing rhythm and discipline.  It starts with making my bed.  But it ends with a life grounded in rich practices and relationships.

In Life , , , ,
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