Summer: An Opportunity to Develop Life-Giving Rhythms

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Summer is officially here! People often think of the New Year as the time to make resolutions and develop new habits like eating better or going to the gym.

What is often overlooked is that summer provides us with opportunities for course adjustments as well. Often our normal daily and weekly rhythms are disrupted or altered by summertime. Kids are out of school; there is more daylight; we take vacations, etc.

Because of this, summer is a good opportunity to reflect upon, and even reconsider, what our daily and weekly rhythms are and how they might be shaping us.

There is a saying in business: “culture eats strategy for lunch”. In other words, a business can have the best plans in the world, but the daily rhythms, attitudes, and habits of the company—the culture—will ultimately determine how successful the business becomes. And good strategy cannot overcome a bad work culture.

The same is true for our personal lives. We can have the best of intentions, the loftiest of personal goals,  but our daily habits and practices eat our good intentions and goals for lunch.

The reality is that most of us have not reflected much on our daily and weekly rhythms, practices, and habits. They just sort of happen, often without realizing it. Take the smartphone as an example: this small device has a tremendous impact on our daily and weekly habits. Whether we realize it or not, the smart phone has actually been training us—developing in us certain habits and rhythms. It has been instilling in us certain practices that ultimately shape the kind of people we are becoming.

If you don’t believe me, try doing a smartphone audit. For a day, track your usage. When is the first time you pick up your phone? When is the last time you use your phone? When are other times during the day that you use your phone? What do you use it for?

After you’ve done this audit, then ask yourself the following questions: does my smartphone help me pay attention to the things that matter most in life? Why does the smartphone command so much of my attention? What do I gain from giving my smartphone so much attention? And lastly, does my use of the smartphone help me to become the person that I aspire to be?

As the regular habits and rhythms of our lives are interrupted by summer, this is an opportune time to create some space in your life to think about some of those bigger questions that we often do not think about during the hustle and bustle of our daily rhythms: what kind of person do I want to become? Am I becoming that kind of person that I want to be? What kind of daily and weekly habits and patterns do I need to establish to become the person that I want to be?

Research has shown that our smartphones have trained us to be anxious if we are not being distracted by all the things our smartphones have to offer. Maybe another way of saying this is that for many years we have been practicing being distracted; we have developed the habit of not paying attention to that which is most present in our lives. So, here’s a suggestion. This summer, as your regular rhythm of life is thrown off, make the intentional effort of practicing how to pay attention to God and to others who are in your life. To do this, we will not only have to cut out things that distract us from paying attention to God and others, but it will also mean that we will need to begin to develop new habits to replace the old ones.

What if we started our morning with prayer or Scripture reading instead of checking our notifications? What if we looked back at the meaning of our baptism each morning instead of looking for likes on social media? What if we anticipated that every encounter that we had with others in our day was an opportunity to be a blessing, to receive a blessing, or to receive a gift from God? What if your bedtime routine included the intentional practice of giving thanks for specific gifts and encounters in the day?

How we spend our days, is how we spend our lives. Summer is an opportune time to recalibrate our direction and to develop life-giving rhythms that will help us become what we long to be.

Dr. Kelly Liebengood is dean of the School of Theology and Vocation and Professor of Biblical Studies at LeTourneau University in Longview, Texas.