Olympic crowds inspire athletes
The media and coffee shop conversation is all about how the crowds at the Olympic venues have lifted the athletes to new heights of glory. A case perhaps of the crowds becoming more than a crowd, actually becoming community. Many of the athletes have also talked about their inner mental battle to believe they could win their particular discipline. In the crisis moments the hugely positive encouragement of the crowds have helped them believe.
In their book ‘Mindfulness – a practical guide to Finding Peace in a Frantic World’, which is based on Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) Professor Mark Williams and Dr. Danny Penman talk about one of the insights of MBCT and other therapies: the reality that we attack ourselves with self-critical thoughts and that our minds are a rumour mill, constantly making often false interpretations of the world around us.
If I had listened to my self-critical thoughts my own book ‘A Book of Sparks – a Study in Christian MindFullness’ might never have come about. What brought about a change in my thinking was the encouragement of others as well as becoming aware that I was bigger than my self-critical thoughts, and my thoughts were not a direct readout of reality.
The encouragement of others in my community to write the book was hugely important. Simon Walker, an Anglican Vicar and author of ‘The Undefended Leader’ Trilogy acted a bit like a coach in pushing me to believe in myself, and gave me a lot of practical help. Another friend who was a professional editor did a lot of work on the book, followed by another friend who is a professional copy-editor who worked very hard on the original manuscript.
Yet other friends suggested possible publishers before a member of my congregation put me in touch with Instant Apostle the eventual publishers of ‘A Book of Sparks.’
When I was growing up in Kenya we didn’t have television and my mum taught me to read at the age of three. She was followed by a succession of English teachers who really motivated me to write. But why should we write? Simon Barnes who writes on sport for The Times wrote recently that Federer played not for fame or victory, but for playing’s sake, that he played with soul. We need to write not for fame or glory but just for writing’s sake – for the sheer joy of seeing words on a page. We need to write even if only one person reads what has been written.
Do you have a dream that you are not following because of self-critical thoughts? Is there someone in your life that you need to encourage to step out and dream? Helen Glover the British Olympic rowing gold medalist apparently only took up the sport four years ago. Her mother saw an advert in a newspaper calling for tall people to take up rowing.
If secretly you believe you have a book in you…start writing. Let’ s stop pulling people down and start building them up.
mindful eating
On Tuesday someone paid for us to go to Bel Canto the restaurant in London where the waiters and waitresses sing opera as you eat. It was an opportunity to eat mindfully as the starter and main course were exquisitely presented and full of flavour. It was probably the best fish soup starter I have ever savoured.
But what does it mean to eat mindfully, and who advocates it?
I first came across the idea of eating mindfully in Carl Honore’s book In Praise of Slow, where he talks about the Slow Food movement started in Italy by culinary writer Carlo Petrini. One of the ideas in this combatting fast food is to eat much more slowly and really savour the food as you eat – really paying attention to what you put on your plate and how you eat it. As someone who lived on a tea estate and was taught how to make a pot of tea with tea leaves and who lamented the rise of tea bags this really appealed to me.
I then came across mindful eating exerices in psychology. Therapies like Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) have a mindfulness exercise where you eat one raisin, really paying attention to it with all your senses. Mark Williams and Danny Penman have a similar exercise in their book Mindfulness- a practical guide to Finding Peace in a Frantic World they call the Chocolate Meditation.
These mindful eating exercises are called reality-focused, that is they are not religious but neutral and can be used by anyone, even thought they have their roots in Buddhist Insight Meditation.
But should Christians eat mindfully? Of course they should, because Christians are called to be reality-focused. But also Christians should be able to add another dimension to mindful eating. One is to bring back the forgotten art of slowing down before you eat and giving thanks beforehand through what used to be called saying Grace. We can also emphasise the communal aspect of eating together in physical, emotional and spiritual attunement.
In the book of Genesis in the Bible in the first chapter God looks at all He has made and this is what it says, ‘God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.’ (1:31). God looked mindfully at all that He made and declared it very good. We should look at the food on our plate in the same way, with attention, mindfully and aware of its created goodness. And then we should give thanks for the Provider of this goodness.
As Christians we are called to scrupulously honest. We have forgotten to be thankful for the food we have been given, and have been sucked in to eating mindlessly along with most of the world. We haven’t shown the way in mindful eating. We need to be honest and admit that the mindful eating exercises in MBSR and MBCT are a good thing and that others have shown the way to mindful eating. The Slow Food movement is a good thing and we should be part of such a movement especially as it challenges food production values.
Daniel ate mindfully and with awareness (Daniel 1:12) and Jesus turned water into wine. With spiritual awareness our own meals can be transformed into an encounter with God’s grace.
Engaging with culture
Evangelical Alliance Culture Footprint article
Mindfulness and Federer
Federer has won seven Wimbledon titles and seventeen Grand Slam titles. What you saw today was the legacy of living memory within his mind, heart and body of all that he had done previously, helping him to win again. This living memory is a distinctive of Christian mindfulness but can be seen in other areas, like sport. The Greek word in the New Testament for this living memory/remembering/mindfulness is mneme, from which we get our word mnemonic.
The good news is that Andy Murray is building that living memory within his mind, heart and body. In his own words he is getting ‘closer’. He has made a Wimbledon final, and he has won a set in a Grand Slam final for the first time – but he had other chances. He was playing someone, however, who had moved from thinking in playing to playing out of pure awareness without thinking – what the commentators have called the genius of Roger Federer.
I have never seen such support for a British player at a Wimbledon match, and many are saying that Andy has won an army of friends for his emotional response after the final. At a human level it was inspirational for all of us, because we all have fights we are involved in and we can be inspired in those fights, whether with health or other issues, to never give up.
This will be a living memory for many, that will transcend the dulling that time brings. Federer had to play his best tennis to beat Murray, who never gave up. Andy mysteriously when he won his matches looked to the skies and raised his fingers in the air. No one knows except him what it means. But the One we lift our eyes too can lift us to our utmost for his highest – He is the living memory we need above all things in order to see what has been called the Glory of God – a human being fully alive.
mindful of one thing
In the early church an Abba or an Amma (spiritual father or mother) would give a beginner a maxim to think about, and be mindful of all day (including memorizing it). This is wisdom not information.
For example, ‘Want to possess nothing with as much desire as those who want to posses everything.’ Diadochus of Photike (5th century).
Speaks to our materially possessive world.
Mindful of God and God mindful of us
I love the story of Saul in Acts 9 when he is on the road to Damascus. We think we know the story but how well do we know it? It is very challenging and disturbing.
Saul becomes aware of the divine presence. A light from heaven flashed around him, he heard a voice (the Voice). He is blind for three days, a symbolic representation of his death to his old self as the Bible calls it (Ephesians 4:22). Some Christian psychologists call this a false self. We are to replace it/God replaces it with our new self (Ephesians 4:24). We could call this our true self.
What happened to Saul in those three days? He began the day in certainty. He had power and control – in his hand he had a letter from the high priest that gave him the authority to arrest Christians? (By the way was he right to do this?)
He began the day with security and with his survival assured: he was on the side of those with power. He began the day with the esteem and affection of his religious friends.
Our false self is like a submerged triangular iceberg with three points: our desires for power and control, for security and survival, for esteem and affection. At any one time, one of these points will be the most visible one sticking above the surface of our life (icebergs are mostly below the surface).
During those three days of blindness Saul sees these three certainties of his false self crumbling. He will no longer have power and control as a new untrusted follower of Jesus. He will no longer enjoy the esteem and affection that used to be his. His security and survival is under threat (there is a plot to kill him within days).
Of course each of us try to ensure that we protect these three needs, but this is an impossible task, and one that takes up most of our energy. What we need to do is let go of trying to ensure these three things, and instead put our trust in the Voice. He is the new centre, and we are not.
It is not surprising that many people say conversions like Saul’s just don’t happen any more. The truth is they need to but we avoid this true conversion, dying to our old self and rising to our new self; letting go our false self and embracing our true self.
Can you become aware of this false self, and how you protect these needs?
Coco the dog’s mindful thoughts (after being brain-scanned)
We recently wired up our dog in order to find out what he thought – a sort of canine brain-scan. The clever computer was able to translate his stream of thoughts into English (although he does speak English: words such as walk, food, bedtime, outside etc).
The punctuation was difficult to work out because it was a stream of consciousness, so I will try and represent it as faithfully as possible.
I do love my family but I do want to be top dog and I am only the little dog but I think I might be able to dominate the smallest one I am going to try I do resent that I do not get the family food on the table because I am part of the family I do also resent that I do not get my own bedroom or even better get the bed that the mummy and daddy have I don’t mind them having a a little bit of it I do also like chasing squirrels but I don’t really know what I would do if I caught one maybe I could shake it like a sock I do like doing that maybe if I don’t eat my dog food they will give me human food because I am now one of them although I do like cheese and ham on my walks and I don’t mind rolling over for these treats or rolling on the lovely fox poo that they kindly leave in the park I do have a happy life, sleeping, eating and free running I do look forward to talking to you again….
Coco who is a cockapoo ( Cocker Spaniel/ Poodle cross) fell asleep at this point. We will try again later in the week. 
the mystery of mindfulness part 3
Sometimes we need to focus on the riddles and mysterious statements Jesus makes, staying with just the one or two verses of that riddling.
For example what does Jesus mean when he says this in Mark 4:21-24?
‘He said to them, ‘Do you bring a lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed? Instead, don’t you put it on its stand? For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.”
‘Consider carefully [see] what you hear,’ he continued. ‘With the measure you use, it will be measured to you – and even more. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.’
A clue is that this has to be considered in the context of the rest of Mark 4. Two key questions are: what is the lamp, and what is being measured?
Jesus was a riddler. And wrestling with riddles sparks new neural pathways in our neuroplastic brains.
So what does Jesus mean when he says this in Mark 4:21-24?
‘He said to them, ‘Do you bring a lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed? Instead, don’t you put it on its stand? For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.”
‘Consider carefully [see] what you hear,’ he continued. ‘With the measure you use, it will be measured to you – and even more. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.’
In the context of Mark 4 which is about the seed and the sower, with the seed being the Word of God, the lamp is also the Word of God. The echo is of Psalm 119:105, ‘Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.’ But what is being measured? And what will be received? The clue is in what the good soil represents in the parable of the seed and the sower. And the answer is worth waiting for. The answer makes Jesus a major contemporary player in a key cultural phenomenon.
The good soil is the attentive listener the one who attentively hears the Word of God. Another aspect of Mark chapter 4 is the hidden nature of God’s revelation, which also requires us to be attentive. Jesus begins the parable of the sower, with the imperative, ‘Listen!’ He ends it with ‘He who has ears to hear let him hear.’
He repeats this with a variation in verse 23, ‘If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.’ This is followed up so that we get the point about being attentive hearers with ‘Consider carefully what you hear, in verse 24. Literally he says ‘see what you hear.’ Akouein in verse 23 is apparently a present imperative which means a continuous turning to God’s Word in attentive hearing.
What are we listening for? We are listening for God’s revelation. What Jesus is saying is that the more attentive we are the more revelation we will receive. With the measure you use (of attentiveness) it (revelation) will be measured to you (v.24).
The sad thing is that we don’t value this attentive listening (a Christian version of mindfulness) to the Word of God in a continuous way. Of course we have to ask, ‘how do we do it?’, and that is another matter. Jesus is the master and commander of attention and we should listen attentively to him.
Mindful of mystery part 2
Jesus was a riddler. And wrestling with riddles sparks new neural pathways in our neuroplastic brains. I dare you to wrestle with this one.
What does Jesus mean when he says this in Mark 4:21-24?
‘He said to them, ‘Do you bring a lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed? Instead, don’t you put it on its stand? For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.”
‘Consider carefully [see] what you hear,’ he continued. ‘With the measure you use, it will be measured to you – and even more. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.’
In the context of Mark 4 which is about the seed and the sower, with the seed being the Word of God, the lamp is also the Word of God. The echo is of Psalm 119:105, ‘Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.’ But what is being measured? And what will be received? The clue is in what the good soil represents in the parable of the seed and the sower. And the answer is worth waiting for. The answer makes Jesus a major contemporary player in a key cultural phenomenon.
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