Deconstructing the ‘Quiet Time’
Published November 26th, 2006 in Spiritual DisciplinesI wondered this week if I’d done our young people a disservice by teaching them about having quiet times with God.
Don’t misunderstand me here, I don’t think the quiet time is wrong, but in several discussions with young adults that had moved from full time study to full time work, the inability to have that sit down time with God was causing stress and frustration.
Early start times, long days, church, social and familiy resposnsibilities plus a general weariness had squeezed out the traditional quiet time, leaving these young adults feeling like God was distant and getting further away.
This got me thinking about how I disciple people in terms of nurturing their spiritual health. Have I made the concept of a quiet time so big that it has become unintentionally legalistic in the minds of my young people? Is there an alternative?
There must be.
During one meeting I had this week with a young adult, we came up with this alternative for their spiritual journey over the next few months:
1. Set aside one hour a week to read the Bible. As you read, pick six or seven themes that you can focus on over the next week.
2. On each day, pick one of those themes and meditate on it all day. For instance, if ‘creation’ was the theme for the day, where can you see the creative work of God in your day? Where can you see evidence of the Creator still at work? Pray some short prayers of thanks for creation, and so on for the whole day. ANother day, you might pick a particular person to pray for at every opportunity you get.
3. At the end of the week, journal some of your thoughts and experiences.
Then, do it all over again!
This way, the Bible is still read in a devotional way, meditation happens, prayers are said and space is made for God to speak - all within the context of the everyday setting. For some, I suspect, this will be a far better way to connect with God than any other.
My journey this year has been to find fresh expressions of the spiritual disciplines that make sense of the craziness that my life has turned into. I’ll still teach the concept of the quiet time, but I’ll add the idea of a noisy time, a walking time, a working time - in fact ALL the time - with God.
10 Responses to “Deconstructing the ‘Quiet Time’”
- 1 Pingback on May 19th, 2007 at 2:38 pm
When I’m in uni, I’ve got a fairly long commute. I like to read my Bible on the train and bus. I get to spend good me/God time. And then I have holidays and don’t ride the train everyday. Grrr. (I also really hate weekends.) I sometimes feel like taking a ride for no reason, just to trigger the association. You’re right, it is legalistic. We need to engage with God everywhere and everytime.
Legalism. Hmm.. it seems to be our most unfavourite thing, currently in church circles.
I suppose legalism arises when someone tries something new to stay close to God, and when it works, tells everyone: “hey guys, try this“- in the future, it becomes so in built that we think we can’t be Christians with out it.
Thanks for the brain food, Matt!
worth a shot! i’m hopeless with reading bible everyday. gonna try that outline-without making it legalistic! can’t wait til this sunday where people can connect to God how best suits them!!
I don’t think you’ve done them a disservice - yet. There are some things we shouldnt be legalistic about, but I do think that quiet times are one that we should.
Maybe it shouldnt be something so big that it is causing people stress and frustration, but it’s something that we should be encouraging all christians to do.
Even if it’s five or ten minutes a day, putting aside some time, JUST for God, is important. Sometimes we oversanitise everything in our churches, with a pat on the back and a ‘there, there’ whenever someone falters. We try to make people feel like everythings allright, and thatthey should never feel bad about anything. I believe that if people are too busy with their own lives to give five minutes a day to God, then yeah, they should be feeling a little selfish and guilty over that. We should never be too busy for God. If you are, cut back.
Yes, we have full time work, study, family and social commitments, church commitments. But you know what? When these things fill your life, God WILL seem distant. What good is doing all these things if you strain, or lose the one thing that can energise you and carry you through them?
It’s a fine line between making something essential and making something legalistic. Time with God is essential - but it can take many forms. I think that as long as there is some expression of the Spiritual Disciplines in a persons life then there will be a growing faith. The traditional “sit at your desk with your Bible open” quiet time may or may not be part of it. Saying that it ‘must’ crosses into the legalistic territory for me.
Is it legalistic to say that we *must* believe in Jesus Christ in order to be saved?
You’ve painted little word “must” with a big brush, Matt.
Some would say it is - I know plenty of people that believe in the ‘many pathways to God’ that often accuse me of being legalistic by saying Jesus is the only way.
As I read it, Jesus held to some fundamental truths, but rallied against the way the Pharisee’s were saying those truths were expressed in day to day faith. SOmehow we need to be doing the same as Jesus.
That’s the balance, eh? Absolute truth and legalism.
Lol read this and sounded strangely famililar. And i’ve tried different ways but frankly it’s hard especially on thank GFGod day and everything is getting messed up. Or where is God at work well that day i think he took a vacation, so what does it mean if u get nothing, i know faith isn’t about getting from God but I want to grow I want to learn I want to experience God daily.
Perhaps I just keep trying.
Pam- I believe on of the definitions of faith is “not giving up”
Keep trying!