Yesterday in church, as I was listening to a sermon about the armor of God, I wrote down these questions: “Am I recharging my spiritual battery – the strength in my inner person – daily? I do this diligently for my phone and my computer, but I do it for myself?”
There have been times in my life when I could have answered “yes,” but recently I have slacked off on intentionally recharging my inner person. Instead, the first thing I do when I get up in the morning, when I start to drag during the day, and when I want to wind down at night is look at something on my phone or computer. It’s not always social media, but often it is. I realized that I had fallen into a pattern of using this kind of distraction as a form of recharging. And I’ve been wondering why I’ve felt a little drained :)
The truth is that scrolling social media often does opposite of recharging my battery. Someone’s post makes me mad, sad, (and dangerous to know – sorry, that’s a reference to an 80’s album) disappointed, disgusted, or leaves me feeling woefully inadequate in some area of my life. I even played a game one day: how long does it take scrolling social media for something to make me feel worse than when I started? I do want to reiterate that I love Facebook and Instagram, the two social media platforms that I use (I’m using one now). In the end, I get more good than bad out of them, more joy and laughter than pain and sorrow, more connection than disconnection, and that’s why I still use them regularly. I have just been convicted of how I’m using them – what the time spent on them, and the habit of using them, has replaced. I don’t wake up and engage in a spiritual practice to start my day on a regular basis. That’s not my habit. It used to be, and it needs to be again.
As I was thinking about how to change my habit and what my routine should be, the image of a phone battery charge status icon came to mind. I wondered if I could link those four blocks to four aspects of my daily spiritual practice – to my daily “recharging”? As I do with my phone, I could check to see if all four blocks were solid. If they weren’t, then I need to find a way to get to a “charger” sooner than later.
These kinds of visual aids and object lessons help me. They give me something tangible that I can check to see if I’ve done. They also give me something doable.
Here’s where I landed on this little exercise.
None of this has to be a huge ordeal. In fact, if it is, it’s accomplishing more than recharging. That’s okay, but what I'm talking about here is a workable daily routine for recharging. Today, I decided to work through the book of Ephesians. At first, I thought I’d read all six chapters in one sitting, maybe even in two versions. The Lord stopped me and reminded me that this is far more than is required. It’s also a good way to burn out early and never form a good habit. So, today, I will read Ephesians 1. Tomorrow I might read Ephesians 1 in another translation, Ephesians 2, or I might read the exact same passage again. I might read the same passage for a week or even a month. The point is not how much different scripture you can read. The point is to have scripture be the basis of your daily empowerment and direction-setting. If you have Psalm 23 memorized, you could probably use that, and only that, for the rest of your life.
“Meditate” can mean different things in different contexts. Here, I mean to sink deeper into a truth, to interact with it, to let it affect you. I often change the word "meditate" to “marinate” because it gives me a better idea of what I’m doing. If I’m meditating on Ephesians 1, I’m marinating myself in its truth. This can happen by simply taking some time to reflect not just on what the passage says, but what the passage says to me, today. I often journal because it helps me keep my train of thought. I tend to land on one truth from the passage, one question it causes me to ask about myself, and delve into that. Another way to meditate is to read a daily devotional. That’s what most of them are – short meditations on a passage of scripture. It doesn’t have to be on the same passage you read for Block 1.
For prayer, I don’t start with a list of requests for other people or even for myself. There is a time for this kind of prayer, but this is not the heart of recharging prayer. Instead, I’ll pray about what God revealed in my scripture reading and meditation and let that take the prayer where it takes it. I will try to focus on one truth God has brought to light and ask God to help me work that out in my day and in my life. I will ask God to help me make the changes I need to make to be aligned with it, to nudge me when I forget completely and fall back into old habits, and empower me to find joy in His way of being. Mostly importantly, I will listen. This is not really a time for me to talk. It’s a time for me to ask God to speak to me because it’s God’s Word, spoken to me, that recharges me, changes me, and empowers me – not a litany of thoughts and requests I make to Him.
Finally, I will probably listen to a worship song. If I’m short on time, this is a great thing to do in the car or even when getting dressed. If I have time, I might sit down at the piano and play a song. Or I might even sit on the porch and soak in the beauty of creation, listen to the birds for a minute, and overflow with the joy, gratitude, and peace that God’s beauty elicits – this is worship. In fact, all four blocks could be done during a morning walk – either with scripture you’ve memorized or something you can listen to on your phone. I am TERRIBLE at keeping up any sort of routine and pretty darn good at planning them. So, for the next month, I’m going to commit to charging my battery every day, every morning if I can. When I do, I’m going to post a “battery status.” If I only have time to read some scripture, then there will only be one block on my battery, but at least there will be something! Maybe later in the day I can find some time to finish the recharging. I’m not shooting for perfection. I’m just trying to do something for each block every day, even if I know in an ideal world I could do more, go deeper, etc. The point is to make these four things, no matter how brief, the non-negotiables of my daily life, my morning routine if possible.
In Psalm 5:3, David writes:
In the morning, LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly.
I like the way Eugene Peterson translates it in The Message:
Every morning you’ll hear me at it again. Every morning I lay out the pieces of my life on your altar and watch for fire to descend. My goal is that every morning God will hear me at it again.
Will you join me?
I need accountability, and I thought that might be a great way to use social media. To that end, I’m going to post my battery status each day. If you would like, post a picture of your battery, if you’ve found time to recharge each day, in the comments.
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