Find your Quiet. Discover your Focus. Experience your Joy.

In today’s hyper-social, ultra-connected, uber-chatter-clatter world, where is the quiet?  I find myself spinning, spurting, shifting and shuffling from one distraction to another.  I don’t think I’m ADD or ADHD, but who knows?  Perhaps I just haven’t been diagnosed.  Although, most of my friends say they feel the same as we jog our minds on an endless treadmill of competing issues and activities … and contort our minds through mental Avatar-esque gymnastics to remain focused and on task while hopscotching through the barrage of rings, dings, beeps and buzzers that simultaneously compete for our attention.  Sifting through the noise and clutter can be psychologically paralyzing.  Are you wore out yet?  Ha!  I KNOW!!  It’s exhausting.  Every day.  And, really, that’s a good thing … we’re alive and have people and interests that actively seek our time and attention.

And this is precisely why our ability to experience Joy on an ongoing daily basis has to become an intentional act of search, rescue and recovery.

For me, the only sure way I’ll have a gnats-eyelash-of-a-chance to keep my brain sane, is to begin my day with quiet meditation … and even better if I exercise.  Sadly, that doesn’t happen near as often as it should.  But here’s what I do:

·        Search (Find your quiet)

o   Read a daily message sent from my girlfriend, Tracy Fox:   www.havingaheartforgod.com

o   Switch off between two daily devotionals:  one by Sarah Young, Jesus Calling; the other by Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest

o   Read a chapter from a select book on an area I desire growth

·        Rescue (Discover your Focus)

o   Pray about what I just read to seek inspiration and greater understanding for what it might mean within my current crazy.  I invite new thinking to jolt me out of my sometimes staid, and oftentimes drained, mindset.  Then, I lift up my family and friends and those whom I know are struggling … covering them with Protection, Peace and Renewal.

o   Journal observations through a heart of hope to document thoughts and ideas that spark new vision.

·        Recovery (Experience your Joy)

o   This is when I start feeling wonderfully raw, real, humble and whole to take on the day. I perceive my purpose, feel good and grounded, and sense a smile in my heart.  I ask my God to guide my thinking, my actions, my attitudes, my behaviors, my decisions. 

“Thank you for today, Dear Lord;

Guide my head and hands so as not to waste one moment;

Set my sights and steps toward good.

Grant me the Light of Truth in all I say and do;

Help me to be Your Light of Love to others;

Help me be more like You. Amen”

o   I breathe deep and imagine love flowing to and through me.  Ahhh … Joy.