Episode 1052: The Spiritual Discipline of Attention

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining me on episode 1052 of the inspired stewardship podcast.

[00:00:06] Emily Sander: I'm, Emily Sander, I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent and your treasures to live out your calling. Having the ability to grow in your leadership is key.

[00:00:22] Scott Maderer: And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this, the inspired stewardship podcast with my friend, Scott.

[00:00:28] recognizing that God is calling us to act. We become aware of those opportunities. And when we have awareness, then we can take action. But without awareness, we'll never take. Because without awareness, we simply don't know that action needs to be taken welcome. And thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcast.

[00:00:58] If you truly desire to [00:01:00] become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time. And your treasures for your true color in the inspired stewardship podcast, we'll learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world

[00:01:19] in today's spiritual foundation episode about impacting the world. I talk with you about the spiritual practice of. I talk about how being unaware is all too easy. And I also share why attention is the fundamental of all spiritual practices. We've talked a lot on the show about different spiritual dif disciplines, about the discipline of prayer, the discipline of silence, the discipline of scripture, reading and others.

[00:01:49] And one of the things that came to mind the other day, when I was doing some scripture, reading myself, The phrase, I was unaware. [00:02:00] Those three words are in the story of Jacob, in what we commonly refer to as the stairway from heaven, passage, or dream or experience that Jacob had in that story. Jacob is on a journey from bear Sheba to Heran and because she's gone, he's going there because his mother, Rebecca.

[00:02:25] Apparently wasn't real thrilled with his marriage possibilities down in Beersheba. So she sent him up towards Huron to take a wife from among the women of that LA land. Instead of the women from there that were Hittites, she wanted her son to go back to his Homeland and find someone from their people to marry.

[00:02:52] But Jacob was also going to Sheba and getting away from her Sheba, go to Heran rather because [00:03:00] he had a death threat on him from his twin brother, Esau, Jacob had stolen or grabbed or acquired. However you want to phrase it. The birthright that belonged to his just slightly older twin brother, and he had deceived his blind and aging father to steal.

[00:03:21] That birthright. And when Esau had learned of that deception, he basically said, I am going to kill off Jacob. And then the birthright will go back to me. So somewhere between those two points, somewhere on that journey, Jacob stops for the night at a certain place. That's all it says. It's not a temple.

[00:03:43] It's not a cathedral. It's not some special place. It was just a place on the road. It could have been anywhere. In fact, that Jacob had stopped. And in that Jacob dreams about a stairway from [00:04:00] heaven to earth, with angels ascending and descending, and God standing above it, blessing him. And Jacob says, how awesome is this place?

[00:04:09] This is none other than the house of God. This is the gate of. This is what can be described as a thin place, a spot where the presence of God is being felt. And yet Jacob says, surely the presence of the Lord is in this place, but I was unaware of it. See, that brings me to the spiritual discipline. Of attention.

[00:04:37] The truth is that paying attention is a spiritual discipline. I was unaware is a phrase that allows us to overlook suffering, overlook, harm, overlook pain, overlook opportunities to spread the good news and each and every day. It is an act of [00:05:00] spiritual discipline to be awake. To keep our eyes open, to pay attention, to listen carefully.

[00:05:09] I think a lot of the stories of the Bible talk about this directly and indirectly that even though it's easy to be distracted by the day, the act of paying attention is the first step to seeing the opportunities to do the work of God. And notice again, if this happens at just a regular place, this wasn't in church, this wasn't anywhere special because everywhere is special.

[00:05:44] You can encounter God in under an Oak tree at, on a riverbank in your living room. We're told to pay attention because if we slow down and pay attention, that gives us. [00:06:00] That opportunity. See the truth is by focusing on doing one thing at a time, by focusing on hearing and seeing signs of the presence by hope, focusing on recognizing that God is calling us to act, we become aware of those opportunities.

[00:06:23] And when we have awareness, then we can take. But without awareness, we'll never take action because without awareness, we simply don't know that action needs to be taken. It's not maliciousness it's ignorance. And remember, ignorance is curable. Ignorance is curable through paying attention through seeing the opportunities that are there.

[00:06:52] For us, you can develop cues in your life. This is one of the reasons that I talk about developing things like [00:07:00] routines, so that cue triggers you to pay attention to things that are important, including doing other spiritual disciplines. But that actual act of doing that is in itself a spiritual discipline.

[00:07:16] God has blessed us with the ability to pay attention. And often we ignore it at our own peril. Thanks for listening.

[00:07:26] Thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship podcast as a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your call. If you enjoy this episode, do me a favor, go over to facebook.com/inspired stewardship and like our Facebook page and market that you'd like to get notifications from us so that we can [00:08:00] connect with you on Facebook and make sure that we're serving you to the best of our abilities with time and tips there until next time, invest your time.

[00:08:13] Your talent and your treasures develop your influence and impact the world.