Soulfood

Mindfulness: The Art of Paying Attention, and the God Who is Present

Todd Stryde

1 What is mindfulness and what is it not?

Due to its popularity there are many different ideas about what mindfulness means

First: It is not meditation and it is not contemplation. Meditation is the absorption into experience of an idea or object. Contemplation is a thorough examination of an idea or object.

Mindfulness is the act of paying attention, on purpose, in the present. Example of mindful sitting. Any experience can be mindful.

2 A brief history of mindfulness in western culture: It has gone from a religious practice (eastern) to stress reliever to therapeutic exercise. Buddhism uses it to allow thoughts to pass through the mind on the path to detachment. MBSR became popular in treatment of chronic pain, and now is used in therapeutic settings to develop emotion regulation, and to help people be mindful of the counseling experience (awareness of change). Awareness almost always precedes change, so mindfulness is used to increase awareness.

3 Deconstructing Mindfulness – 2 parts, packaging and ability. Mindfulness is a meta-cognitive awareness – being able to be aware of ourselves and observe ourselves. The ability to attend to ourselves and observe ourselves is very helpful. Mindfulness consists of packaging – the use of our awareness is contextual. What it does is entirely dependent on the person using it – attended by assumptions (meaning of life, etc) and purpose (what is the intended outcome). In Buddhism it is purposed to develop detachment. In therapy it is intended to be godless and self-referential.

4. Looking at Scripture 1 Cor. 8 – can Christians eat meat sacrificed to idols? The Corinthians were asking how to live faithfully in a pagan culture. Most meat in the city would have been sacrificed to idols before being served as food. Idol meat is deconstructed into meat and pagan worldview. Paul says the problem is not the meat itself. The meat itself does not in itself pose a problem for the Christian. The problem is the packaging. How do we understand the meat and how is it used? Paul says meat sacrificed to idols can be understood properly and used properly. It must have a Christian starting point and a Christian ending point. The Christian starting point is that there is only one true God. Idols have no real existence. What I believe about something matters!

1 Cor. 9 – purposes matter too. If I am desiring to practice this for the love of God and the building up of the church? If not, then we abstain. We are free to practice it with the right purpose – but we must always be *mindful* of our choices on others. We must not hinder the gospel! “Though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all.” Endpoints matter.

1 Cor. 10 – repackaging summary – eat whatever is served without questions – and give no offense either to Greek or Jew! It is not a yes or no answer. The communal context matters – both the belief and the purpose.

5 Can Christians practice mindfulness? Maybe! Yes, if you recognize that mindfulness carries with it worldview baggage.

Yes, if your starting point is a Christian one – believing that this is God’s world, and He is both present and available. We do not put ourselves into a godless self-referential state. Mindfulness must be mindful of God. It should lead to worship, prayer, thankfulness.

Psalm 89:15-16 “Blessed are those who have learned to acclaim you, who walk in the light of your presence, O Lord. They rejoice in your name all day long; they exult in your righteousness”

Matt 6:26 – we notice what God is doing around us, and have confidence therefore in what He is doing in us.

Yes, if you align yourself to the Christ-like goals of loving God and loving neighbor. The goal of mindfulness is not to become detached, or achieve serenity. We can use it to be mindful of God and His good work.

Brother Lawrence quote: “One way to re-collect the mind easily in the time of prayer, and preserve it more in tranquility, is not to let it wander too far in other times; you should keep it strictly in the presence of God; and being accustomed to think of Him often, you will find it easy to keep your mind calm in the time of prayer, or at least to bring it back from its wandering.”