Week #3: Subversive Games for Ruthlessly Eliminating Hurry
Subversive Games for Week of October 17-23
For more details about Games, visit our Communal Practices page . Or viisit our Sermons page to access last week’s conversation about Ruthlessly Eliminating Hurry and Games for Un-hurrying our lives.
Jesus invited apprentices to Consider the birds of the air and the lilies of the field (Matthew 6) as an antidote to anxiety. Below are practices or Games that we sense may help us to slow down and PAY ATTENTION to the Christ, to our neighbors, to our own selves, and to the Creation.
Game #1: Play Tag with a Tree : aka Befriending a Tree
Consider prayer-walking to your tree daily if possible or at least once per week. As each of us saunter to our tree and “tag it” or touch it, this is an invitation for us to slow down and then to become more rooted in our identity as we avail ourselves to the Creator, Creation, and our Christ-like calling to be a healing people as witnessed in the passage from Matthew 11:28-30.
Trees have always played a vital role in the mission of God’s people - The Garden in Genesis, The Tree by streams of water in Psalm 1, the mustard seed tree of Jesus, and the flourishing city tree at the end of Revelation.
As we befriend a tree, may we practice listening to the dynamic presence of Christ: What is God speaking to me/us? What is my neighbor(hood) saying to me/us? What am I going to do about what is being said?
Click here for more resources on Befriending a Tree
Click here for more resources on Prayer Walking
Lectio divina readings from Matthew 11:28-30
Consider inviting Coastal friends or a neighbor to walk with you!!!
Game #2: Play Corral with your Pocket Screen (Phone/iPad):
Consider using your pocket screen less this week - like corralling it in a cubby while you go on a walk, have dinner, meet with a friend, etc. Set a limit for how much time your phone gets to play before it has to nap or go back to its place.
One of the most helpful games to try is…
Try turning your pocket screen into Grayscale Mode. Check out this article by Wired to see how to Grayscale and how it is an effective method for minimizing our usage and thereby the potential for hurry.
Here are a few more ideas from John Mark Comer’s book The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry to help us with corralling =
Turn your smartphone into a dumbphone. A number of years ago, Jake Knapp’s article “My Year with a Distraction-Free iPhone (and How to Start Your Own Experiment)” hit the internet like wildfire, and a lot of us joined the movement. Okay, there’s no movement. Just my friend Josh and me. But we’re into it. Since then the catchphrase has become the “dumbphone.” As in, well, you get it. There’s no official checklist, but here’s what we suggest: Take email off your phone. Take all social media off your phone, transfer it to a desktop, and schedule set times to check it each day or, ideally, each week. Disable your web browser. I’m a bit lenient on this one since I hate surfing the web on my phone and use this only when people send me links. But this is typically a key facet of a dumbphone.
Delete all notifications, including those for texts. I set my phone so I have to (1) unlock it and (2) click on the text message box to (3) even see if I have any text messages. This was a game changer. Ditch news apps or at least news alerts. They are the devil. Delete every single app you don’t need or that doesn’t make your life seriously easier. And keep all the wonder apps that do make life so much easier—maps, calculator, Alaska Airlines, etc. What Knapp put in one box and labeled “The Future.”
Consolidate said apps into a few simple boxes so your home screen is free and clear. Finally, set your phone to grayscale mode. This does something neurobiologically that I’m not smart enough to explain, something to do with decreasing dopamine addiction. Google it. If right now you’re thinking, Why don’t you just get a flip phone? Point taken. So…
Parent your phone; put it to bed before you and make it sleep in. T’s and my phones “go to bed” at the same time as our kids: 8:30 p.m., sharp. We literally set them to airplane mode and put them in a drawer in the kitchen. Otherwise we burn time and end up frying our brains with blue screens rather than winding down for bed with a good book or…
Keep your phone off until after your morning quiet time. The stats are ominous: 75 percent of people sleep next to their phones, and 90 percent of us check our phones immediately upon waking.9 I can’t think of a worse way to start my day than a text from my work, a glance at email, a quick (sure…) scroll through social media, and a news alert about that day’s outrage. That is a surefire recipe for anger, not love. Misery, not joy. And definitely not peace.
Comer, John Mark. The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry (pp. 226-228). The Crown Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
Game #3: Play Hagah 33x.
Our 3rd game to consider this week is: Chew each bite 33x during at least one meal.
Another basic activity that gets rushed is eating our meals. What might happen if we actually slow down long enough to chew each bite 33x?
Hagah is an ancient Hebrew word which means “to chew” or “to meditate”. Meditation isn’t just about the mind; it’s about the heart. To meditate is to ponder something in our hearts. The prophet Isaiah used the word “hagah” to describe the growl of a lion feasting on its prey. In the same way, pondering something in the heart is like slowly eating a delicious Maine Maple Creemee with Apple Crisp . The only trouble is that there are so many things fighting for our attention that we rarely meditate on anything.
What if chewing our food 33x could be a way to Pay ATTENTION to God’s Presence and Provision? What if chewing our food 33x could be a way to imbibe in the Lord’s Table?
Perhaps Hagah 33 is also an occasion to savor our food and become more grateful for the ordinary elements we consume each day. Perhaps chewing our food begins to open us the commitment of our local / global farmers, our supply chain, and the plants/animals required for us to eat.