My goal for Unconventional is to help people see God in every moment of life, and a friend, Charles Stone, has a similar dream. I’ve asked him to share with us this week on a new book he’s bringing out, Holy Noticing. I like it, and think you’ll be challenged and blessed as your read this post, and his book. Just the post alone has great merit, and the book has more. Here it is!
Mindfulness is a big deal in today’s culture. Businesses such as Apple, sports figures such as basketball player Kobe Bryant, and the popular press such as Time magazine have all given it their stamp of approval. Governments are spending hundreds of millions of dollars researching it, and it has become a billion dollar a year business. In fact, Apple chose a mindfulness app as their app of the year for 2017.
But should Christians embrace it just because everyone else is doing it? No. Much about mindfulness in popular culture has nothing to do with God, Jesus, the Bible, or Christianity. And “Christianizing” the latest fad dilutes the faith and can lead us astray.
However, does God’s Word support and does Christian history illustrate Christians using some of these techniques as tools for spiritual growth? Yes. It’s a lost spiritual discipline that believers should reclaim. And well-known Christians are embracing practices like mindfulness.
In a TV interview a few years before his death, Billy Graham was asked what he would do over if he could do things differently. In his inimical way, he said, “I’d spend more time in meditation and prayer.”
But just what is mindfulness?
I call it Holy Noticing, being fully present and mindful in each moment God has given us. I’ve defined mindfulness as the art of Holy Noticing, noticing with a holy purpose, God and His handiwork, our relationships, and our inner world of thoughts and feelings.
Here are 5 practical benefits from practicing it.
1. It helps you avoid forgetting God in the everydayness of life.
2. It can enhance your mental and emotional health.
3. It can increase your happiness by making you more aware of your inner world and thus being able to change it if you need to.
4. You will be able to live more as a human being rather than a human doing.
And how do you do it? That’s what my newest book, Holy Noticing: The Bible, Your Brain, and the Mindful Space Between Moments explains. You can learn more at www.holynoticing.com. It’s available now at all online retailers and at your favorite bookstore.