As a Church Planter, I am well aware of the fact that my own day-to-day life sets and example for what it means to follow Jesus. There is more to following Jesus than making the right decision when the time comes. It’s means becoming the kind of person who is in the routine of making the right decision.

So my lack of self-discipline is a problem. Nowhere was I feeling this more acutely than in my lack of spiritual discipline.

One key to becoming a person of discipline is laid out in Charles Duhigg’s The Power of Habit. According to Duhigg, some habits are better than others, because they enable other habits to form. For instance, it’s easier to quit smoking if you are taking up running because you’re building on one healthy habit. Duhigg calls these “Keystone Habits.” As a freelance content and social media marketer, I have no outside enforced schedule. Most mornings, I would wake up grab my computer and start checking emails in bed.

I wanted to be the kind of person that dedicated time daily to prayer and scripture meditation. But most days I’d just get busy and it wasn’t happening.

I had to admit something embarrassing: I needed something more tangible than a vague desire to be godlier actually to become a person of spiritual discipline.

So I enrolled in a local Crossfit gym. My thought was that the regularly scheduled classes and the social pressure would actually inspire me to get out of bed and do something with my day.

Once out of bed, then I’d worry about “being spiritual.”

Here are five lessons I’ve learned six weeks into this experiment.

1. You can’t just roll out of bed

The first time I went to class, I rolled out of bed, grabbed some leftover cold pizza and drove to the gym.

Two-thirds of the way through, I excused myself to throw up in the alley.

Before the next session, I woke up an hour early, which gave me the opportunity to drink a cup of coffee, practice Lectio and eat a handful of almonds. This was good, because it is closer to my actual goal.

The thought that I would be able to roll out of bed and complete a grueling workout was naive to say the least. Developing discipline will require some R & D, the right gear, and a few opportunities to fail.

2. Plan ahead

A few mornings, I was late because of the time I spent frantically looking for my workout shoes. More than a few days, I ended up commando because I forgot to put my boxers in my gym bag.

Pulling off the now two hour commitment of coffee-Lectio-commute-workout requires some planning ahead. This is the beauty of a keystone habit. I’m now getting better at consistently doing my laundry and packing my lunch.

3. I don’t know how to listen to God (or anyone else)

I use the Jesuit Pray as You Go podcast to help me practice Lectio Divina because I wasn’t sure I’d actually be able to read right after I wake up. However, I quickly find my mind wandering or occasionally drifting back to sleep.

It’s no easier in the gym. Crossfit is all about technique, so you have to pay attention to what the coach says.

I want to become the kind of person who naturally listens to the Holy Spirit and the reading of God’s word.

This process is reminding me just how much work listening requires.

Just acknowledging that listening doesn’t come naturally has already helped. When listening to Lectio (or the coach at the gym), I try to remain aware of my own attention. When my mind wanders, I gently remind myself about the task at hand.

4. Don’t expect to like it.

It should be said that I am not a natural morning person. Nor an athlete. Nor a good listener.

At first, what we value and what we like don’t lineup. Why would they? How could we possibly like something we’re unaccustomed to?

To develop discipline we need “carrots and sticks” that are more immediately powerful than our likes and dislikes. For me, this is the financial investment at the gym (stick) and the social opportunities of working out in class (a carrot for extroverts).

5. Be nice to yourself.

In The Willpower Instinct, Kelly McGonigal makes the point that when developing willpower, we should be nice to ourselves. Since we are doing something new, we are essentially a “child” in that area of our life. Instead of beating ourselves up for not doing well, we should sooth the child.

When I wake up too late for the gym and miss Lectio, my natural reaction is to beat myself up. These days, I’m trying to talk a little nicer to myself. I’ll say something like “That wasn’t the right thing to do. But it’s okay. You’re new at this, and you are getting better every day!”

I’m still not sure where this experiment will lead. I may or may not stick with either of these two practices. But I know that I’m capable of developing discipline.

So are you.

The post What I’ve Learned in a 40-Day Experiment with the Spiritual Discipline of Crossfit and Lectio Divina appeared first on Chris Morton.

Take some time to think about your day.  Then talk to God about it.

How often have you felt guilty because you don’t know what to pray about?  Crazy, but normal.  Examen is so obvious it hurts.  Remember your day then tell God about your day.  As you do, you’ll see:

Ways God has blessed you.
Ways he seems to have failed you.
Things you don’t understand.
Things you want more of.
Thing you regret.
Things you didn’t realize were there.

Then you talk to God about it.

You can learn about the Examen at IgnatianSpirituality.com, or you might just play this audio file instead.  Here’s Iggy’s Five Steps to Praying the Examen.

1. Become aware of God’s presence.
2. Review the day with gratitude.
3. Pay attention to your emotions.
4. Choose one feature of the day and pray from it.
5. Look toward tomorrow.

Here’s a cheesy catholic PSA to help.

The post Wednesday Spotlight: Iggy’s Five Steps to Praying the Examen appeared first on Chris Morton.

Prayer journaling can be any place you record your conversations with God.  However, by setting up a few standards, you can avoid the self-centeredness and participate in a genuine conversation.  I developed this scripture-led method as a means of praying through my daily reading of scripture.

1. Set a time and place
   When Jesus was teaching his disciples to pray, he told to “go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen.”  Andrew Murray in With Christ in the School of Prayer expounds on this, saying: “the first thing the Lord teaches His disciples is that they must have a secret place for prayer; every one must have some solitary spot where he can be alone with his God. Every teacher must have a schoolroom.”  Decide on a time of day, and a location you can be or a regular basis.  For me, this is every morning, as soon as my coffee is ready, at a desk in my bedroom.
2. Have a scripture reading plan
   A plan for reading scripture is a “pulley” that helps me live out the discipline.  A lot of people try to read through the whole Bible in a year.  I find this daunting, and seldom at meditative as I’d like.  I usually focus on a book like the Psalms, or genre, like the Gospels.  I read anywhere from a paragraph to a chapter.  The important thing is, every morning, I know exactly what I’m supposed to be reading.
3. Read through the passage as many times as necessary
   Think of this as a miniature Lectio Divina.  Read the scripture through once, trying to gain an understanding of its overall trajectory.  Read it again, looking for any words or phrases that stand out to you.
4. Write down the word, phrase, or verse that sticks out to you the most
   Choose one phrase that stood out to you and write it down.  Don’t write too much.  It can get overwhelming to copy it all long hand.  You are going to be dialoguing with this statement, so you don’t want to take on too much.
5. Write a letter to God
   Respond to the passage by writing a letter to God.  Tell him about how the passage made you feel.  Did the passage remind you of a blessing that you want to thank God for?  Did you see a promise in that you are waiting for God to fulfill in your life?  It is very important to be 100% honest in your letter.  Eugene Peterson say’s”prayer is not ‘being nice before God,’ it is bringing our whole selves before him.”  We do not need to impress God with formal language or fancy writing.  No one will ever read this.  Say what needs to be said.  My prayer journal includes confessions I have been scared to share out loud.  I use language that would probably make you blush. Don’t worry.  God’s pretty big.  He can take it.

Do you keep a prayer journal?  What other regular practices help you become more like Christ?

The post How to Develop a Prayer Journal appeared first on Chris Morton.

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.

The post Check Your Heartbeat appeared first on Chris Morton.