{"id":13106,"date":"2024-10-02T22:11:47","date_gmt":"2024-10-03T03:11:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/?p=13106"},"modified":"2024-10-02T22:11:49","modified_gmt":"2024-10-03T03:11:49","slug":"does-practicing-spiritual-disciplines-feel-like-juggling-it-shouldnt-consider-this","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/2024\/10\/does-practicing-spiritual-disciplines-feel-like-juggling-it-shouldnt-consider-this\/","title":{"rendered":"Does Practicing Spiritual Disciplines Feel Like Juggling? It Shouldn’t. Consider this."},"content":{"rendered":"
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Don Whitney<\/em><\/a>, author of several NavPress books, is the John H. Powell Endowed Chair of Pastoral Ministry at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Here are several short, practical posts from his always-timely book, <\/em>Simplify Your Spiritual Life: Spiritual Disciplines for the Overwhelmed<\/a>. In these selected excerpts, Whitney will help us consider ways to simplify our journaling, our prayer, our Christian life in general, our priorities, and our time in Scripture. In this post on the Christian life, Whitney will<\/em> give us a new spin on multitasking as it relates to spiritual disciplines.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Multi-tasking sounds like something we want to avoid when simplifying our spiritual lives. And while that\u2019s probably true in general, there are exceptions to the rule<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Multi-tasking originated as a technological term to speak of a computer performing more than one function at a time, but it makes me think of plate spinners who performed in variety shows in the days of black-and-white television. A plate spinner would balance a dinner plate on top of a tall, pencil-thin wooden rod, then strike the plate\u2019s edge to make it spin. Then he would quickly start a second one spinning on another rod, then a third, on up to about ten or twelve. By the time he\u2019d started the last one, the first plates would begin to wobble, so he\u2019d run to the beginning of the line and quickly give each a new spin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes people think that I\u2019m encouraging them to be spiritual plate spinners. They picture themselves trying to keep an overwhelming number of disciplines balanced, spending more time concerned about the mere maintenance of them than the fruit of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just because we can isolate a discipline (like prayer, Bible intake, worship, or fasting) and examine it doesn\u2019t necessarily mean that it is practiced in isolation from other disciplines.<\/strong> In fact, it\u2019s not unusual to perform five or six disciplines during the same devotional period, most of them simultaneously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, simply by having a \u201cquiet time\u201d you are practicing one form of the discipline of silence and solitude. And during that time you will likely engage in worship, Bible intake, and prayer. That\u2019s three more disciplines. Many will also write their insights from Scripture, their meditations, or other entries into a journal during this time. And if you happen to be fasting, that\u2019s half-a-dozen individual disciplines being performed during the same devotional period. You\u2019re doing more than you realize.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spiritual multi-tasking is not about spinning many spiritual plates; it\u2019s about many ways of filling your one spiritual plate with delicious, satisfying, divine nourishment for your soul.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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DONALD S. WHITNEY<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Donald S. Whitney<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Don Whitney<\/strong>\u00a0holds the John H. Powell Endowed Chair of Pastoral Ministry at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he is professor of biblical spirituality and the director of the Center for Biblical Spirituality. He is the author of several books.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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READ MORE FROM DONALD S. WHITNEY<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Don Whitney, author of several NavPress books, is the John H. Powell Endowed Chair of Pastoral Ministry at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Here are several short, practical posts from his always-timely book, Simplify Your Spiritual Life: Spiritual Disciplines for the … <\/p>\n

Read moreDoes Practicing Spiritual Disciplines Feel Like Juggling? It Shouldn’t. Consider this.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":13016,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":""},"categories":[613,3,8],"tags":[100,629,464],"yoast_head":"\nDoes Practicing Spiritual Disciplines Feel Like Juggling? It Shouldn't. 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