Spiritual Habits for your Heart, Pt. 5

[Part 5 of a series of posts on keeping your heart healthy.  If you haven't already, read the introduction to this series of posts here...]


Habit Number 4:  Rest

As important as it is to our physical health to physically get away from the office, it is equally important for my spiritual health to unplug as well.  To escape the office isn't just a practice that will keep your body from breaking down - it will keep your soul from breaking down as well.  When I seize moments to be quiet and still before God it quiet’s my soul.  When I unplug the TV and spend an evening with God it fills my cup.  When I stop listening to all the noise and all the other voices I so often tune in to and give careful attention to God’s voice I find that I come away refreshed.  Truth is, I rarely her God speak unless I shut everything else off.


There is a reason that God commanded us to keep the Sabbath; it is a discipline for our own spiritual health every bit as much as it is for our physical health; but it won't do my heart any good unless I seek it out.  As a leader, I've learned that no one is readily offering that time to me.  No one else is protecting my Sabbath.  No one else is pushing me to take a day off to be alone with God.  That is something only I can do.  Unless I fight for a day away, my schedule will demand that I keep going.

So how do you effectively take a day of rest when everything and everyone is asking you for more?  Here are a few practices I've embraced:

• Schedule a quarterly "white day" out of the office.  A "white day" is a day dedicated to thinking, praying, looking forward and taking stock of where you've been.  No cell phone.  No laptop.  No intrusions.  Schedule it early or it won't happen - something will come up that you feel you 'just have to be at.'
• Turn off your email.  You don't need to check your mail every 5 minutes on the weekend.  If you've committed to be with your family, be with your family.  It is completely possible to be present and absent all at the same time.  Don't do that to them.  If you need to stay connected, schedule 1 time a day to look through your inbox on the weekends.
  
• Drive noise free.  From time to time I need just to sit with God.  Often times the car is the only place I can't be touched, but so often I spend that time listening to junk.  Use your commute to reflect and pray.  Fast from the radio for a week and ask God to meet you in those moments.
• Seize your best moment.  I'm not a morning person, I'm a night owl.  I think best at night.  Often times, just to be with God or address some nagging issue or thought I'll tuck everyone in for bed and then go pray, read and reflect.  The stillness of my home at midnight is beautiful.  For you it may be the morning.  Whatever it is, seize it and use it to be still.
  

So what are you doing to keep your heart healthy?  There are countless opportunities to be coached, fed and encouraged but ultimately keeping your heart healthy depends on you.  Perhaps its time to make a change, start a habit or even kill an old one in order to get yourself healthy.  

I'm certainly not there yet, so please seize this moment to let me know what you do to keep you healthy.