What’s A Time of Spiritual Renewal?
If we made time for it, I’m not convinced many of us would even know what to do with it.
As you’ve probably noticed, we’ve been quiet for the last thirty days of the Onto Somethin’ Podcast because I had the rare (and I will admit privileged) opportunity to take time for a month of spiritual renewal. I know the concept sounds crazy, but for thirty days I stepped away from everything normal and familiar to press the reset button on my life.
And although there will be a time to share some of the words I heard while on sabbatical, today I want to talk about the nature of the practice itself. Many of us are convinced we are in need of a vacation (which may be true) but after going through this process I’m convinced that it’s the cry of our calendars not of our souls.
What our souls need is a time of spiritual renewal.
A time where we step away from the normal. A time where we go find a spiritual mountain to climb. A chunk of life that let’s the stuff that sits at the bottom of our personality resurface. A time where we stop listening to the voices around us and in us to listen for the voice of God that will never yell over those voices. A time where we see the movement of God in our past.
And that’s where I’m convinced that if many of us made time for it, we wouldn’t know what to do with it. I know for many, to put life on pause for a weekend, an extended amount of days, or even a week is a privilege many systems do not allow. The lack of us doing this may even be one of the main reasons more people can’t even do this in the first place because of systematic injustice.
That’s why I’d like to answer the question I’ve constantly been receiving? How do you take a time of spiritual renewal? What would I even do if I stepped away for a weekend or a week from my job/life to not take a vacation but a time of spiritual renewal? I’ve also even received inquiries from a few of you in ministry or in college who at one point will do this and would like a template.
The bottom line is every person is different, which means no one’s time of renewal will be the same. That being said, I’ve drafted seven principles I think all times of renewal may have in common even if they express themselves in different ways.
7 Ways To Create A Time of Spiritual Renewal
#1 Prepare: Decision fatigue is one of the biggest pitfalls to avoid. No matter what amount of time you’re taking for spiritual renewal, you must plan ahead in order to not distract yourself. “I’ll figure out what I’m doing when I’m there” is one of the worst things you can tell yourself. Preparation doesn’t mean hour by hour is mapped out. It’s simply making the decision ahead of time that I will be in this location doing (and not doing) these things. It’s like bowling. Before you get the ball rolling for the first time, you need some bumpers to actually get where you want to go.
#2 Shut Off Noise: Posts, content, and information is our current day carbon dioxide in the air we breathe. A time of renewal isn’t about having more space for information but for making space for mustard seeds of transformation. The door must be shut on all your distractions. Here is a helpful rule to follow: If it can send you a message, it doesn’t need to be included in your time of spiritual renewal. This includes phone, email, social media, news outlets, youtube, and even certain shows.
#3 Release Influences: It’s true. People are non-negotiables in life. People also greatly influence life. People impress upon us ideas, stressors, and mindsets. For better and for worse. One of the keys of spiritual renewal is becoming quiet enough to find who YOU are without constantly having people around you. It’s interesting with each passing hour how other people’s personalities, expectations, and agendas slide off of you the longer you’re in the presence of yourself and God. I know this is hard, but limited amounts of people help us find who we are when no one else is looking.
#4 Body Takes The Lead: Our bodies keep score. We abuse and use them all the time to meet deadlines, push limits, and make things happen in ways we should never have agreed to in the first place. The reality is we will carry what we pack in one way or another. A time of renewal, especially for those who are fatigued, most likely needs to let your body be in the driver’s seat. It’s not a time of what you could or should do, but what your body wants to do. It’s similar to God’s response to Elijah after coming off of a life high on Mount Carmel. Elijah basically wants to give up on life and God doesn’t hit him over the head with a podcast, conference, or challenge. God simply provides his body food, rest, and a really long walk.1 We must never forget we are all kindergarteners needing a snack and a nap.
#5: A Sounding Board: One of the ways you will be able to hear yourself is if you have one person designated to listen on behalf of yourself. Everyone needs a sounding board while beginning and ending a time of spiritual renewal. Who is the best fit for this? Well, I’d say they need to have already walked the path you’re currently walking and they need to be the type of person who doesn’t start sentences with “You know what you should do…” but more “What I’m hearing you say…” I’d recommend setting up at least 30 minutes to brain dump with this person when you start and when you end your time of spiritual renewal.
#6 Do The Opposite: It’s hard to do extended amounts of practices like praying, silence, and reading scripture. I’d highly recommend doing these practices in a “long form” that you don’t always get the chance to do in your normal routines. The principle of doing the opposite should not only extend beyond your spiritual practices but also just your normal life particles. If you spend the majority of your time inside, then spend a majority of your time outside. Finding instances like these will help open up your body in ways it’s just not used to functioning.
#7: Burn Things Up: This is an exit practice I found helpful in my final hours of spiritual renewal. Many times we think of spiritual experiences in terms of addition. “What did we gain from this?” is the most common question. Very little do we ever think about what we lose or let go of after time of renewal. I’ve found it fascinating that those who study nature say forest fires are actually necessary for the life of an ecosystem. Wildfires remove dead matter, send nutrients into the ground, and they make room for new things.2 This should be our exit practice coming out of a time of renewal. To reflect clearing space in the internal we must also clear space in the external part of our lives.
Counting The Cost…
Now, I didn’t get very practical in explaining any of these elements because I’m going to create a part II of this episode next week to walk through how I crafted my time of renewal with these seven principles in mind. But until then, I want to leave you with one final thought.
Some things worth discovering about ourselves and about God take solitude and time. The reality is we all want the mountaintop, but none of us want to do the work it takes to climb up there. Wandering and revealing go hand and hand.
Although I know many of us aren’t in a season where we can go on a mountaintop right now, I believe there are plenty of us who just aren’t willing to do the work to go do it. We think we’re too important at work. We’re nervous to know what we would even discover about ourselves. And others of us aren’t willing to pay the cost of setting up a space like this one.
After participating in an experience like this, one of the questions I’m going to consider from now on is the cost if I don’t ever take small times for spiritual renewal scattered throughout my lifetime. Sure, plenty of people go their whole lives without taking spiritual retreats and do fine, but the question still sticks with me, “What might they have heard or discovered that they will never know because they never tried?”
That’s a cost worth considering…
References
1An extremely brief summary from 1 Kings 19.
2Grant, Adam. Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know (New York: Penguin Random House, 2021), 11.