Pay Attention. Slow Down.
“Be still and know that I am God” Psalm 46:10
It’s an open secret among our church staff that if you’re in the car when I’m driving, you are taking your life into your own hands. My wife tells me it’s not because I’m a bad driver, but because I am a fast driver. My best friend tells me that when he rides with me, he grows closer to Jesus.
I do everything fast. I eat fast, I talk fast, and I try to solve problems fast. I walk through an airport faster than anyone I know. I prefer to operate at 30,000 feet because being at ground level means I am getting stuck on details, and I hate getting stuck on details, partly because too often, too many details slow things down.
People who know me well might guess that my motto is “move fast and break things”; they wouldn’t be far off the mark.
Moving quickly through life has a lot of advantages, but one of the major disadvantages to operating that way is that being a non-anxious presence and being self-aware can be difficult to accomplish when you’re moving at 100 miles a second.
Edwin Friedman’s book A Failure of Nerve[1] pointed out the need for a non-anxious presence. In his book, Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long[2], DavidRock points out how, by paying attention to your brain, you can grow more mindful to the present, and become a non-anxious presence.
PAY. ATTENTION.
That’s my two-word summary of the entire book. When we pay attention to the kind of work we are doing, we can make sure we have the mental resources to make our best contribution. When we pay attention to our dopamine and adrenaline levels, we can regulate them to our advantage. When we pay attention to our emotional responses, we can label them or reappraise them, taking some of their power away from us. When we pay attention to how others might respond, we can approach collaborative or social situations more mindfully, and help set others up for success.
When we pay attention to our own lives, Brock suggests, we step into the role of the director, making intentional decisions about what we want to do, instead of being driven along by emotion, or expectation, or instinct. A big part of becoming that director includes slowing down, which brings me to the two-word summary of my biggest personal takeaway from this book.
SLOW. DOWN.
As you might be able to tell from the opening of this blog post, I am happy with my ability to go fast. Even though I know moving fast breaks things, I have a bias for action, not for deliberation.
But for the last few years, I have been learning to slow down. And over this semester I have been reminded repeatedly that good decisions and creative insights involve slower thinking (Kahneman[3], and Duffy[4]), and stepping away from the urgency of life (Kleon[5], and Campbell[6]), and paying closer attention to God’s work in yourself and others (Comacho[7], and Poole[8]).
A few years ago, the Lord led me to re-inhabit a principle that I’d long ignored; this practice has helped me slow down and pay attention: It’s the priority of Sabbath.
When I’m approaching Sabbath well, I get to be mindful for a whole day. Without the distraction of social media, or the news, or work that needs to get done. I literally stop, and rest, not only from my labor, but also from any effort that would require my analyzing, or making connections, or even being creative.
In Sabbath, I am invited to enjoy relationship with my God and my family and my friends. I am welcomed into a day where I get to fully celebrate “sitting on the edge of a jetty in summer, a nice breeze blowing in [my] hair, and a cold beer in [my] hand,”[9] and nothing else.
Sabbath, when lived well, is a gift from God that resets my spirit and my mind. It helps this driven man to be still and recognize God’s presence in the world, and in myself. Honestly, I get my Sabbath wrong far more than I get it right. But I’m finding that week after week it’s my approach to it, more than the perfect execution of it, that changes the way I think and the way I live, and it gives me a weekly reminder to always look for opportunities to slow down, and to pay attention.
[1] Edmund Friedman, A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix (New York: Church Publishing, 2017).
[2] David Rock, Your Brain At Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long (New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 2020),
[3] Daniel Kahneman, Thinking Fast, and Slow (New York: Sarrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013).
[4] Bobby Duffy, Why We’re Wrong about Nearly Everything: A Theory of Human Misunderstanding (New York: Basic Books, 2019).
[5] Austin Kleon, Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You about Being Creative (New York: Workman Pub. Co, 2012).
[6] Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces (Novato, CA: New World Library, 1949).
[7] Tom Comacho, Mining for Gold: Developing Kingdom Leaders through Coaching (London: InterVarsity Press, 2019).
[8] Eve Poole, Leadersmithing: Revealing the Trade Secrets of Leadership (New York: Bloomsbury Business, 2017).
[9] Rock, Your Brain At Work, 92.
About the Author
Tim Clark
I'm on a lifelong journey of discovering the person God has created me to be and aligning that with the purpose God has created me for. I've been pressing hard after Jesus for 40 years, and I currently serve Him as the lead pastor of vision and voice at The Church On The Way in Los Angeles. I live with my wife and 3 kids in Burbank California.11 responses to “Pay Attention. Slow Down.”
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Tim, first of all, I’m so sorry to hear about your accident (and see you in the neck brace on the call!)! I passed a kidney stone during the first week of the doctoral program, after having to go to the emergency room, but I experienced NOTHING like your accident. So sorry, brother.
Thank you for the two-word summary of the book, too. Regarding the priority of Sabbath in your life, I would be curious as to how you prepare for Sabbath AND I’d love to hear a bit more about what you do / don’t do on your Sabbath. You’ve mentioned slowing down, not being distracted by social media or the news, etc., so I’m guessing you’ve cut those things out on that day. Are there some other things you have done in the structure of your Sabbath? I’d love to learn.
Thanks Travis. What was supposed to be a 6-8 week process is healing a lot quicker than they expected. Still have to be careful but the brace is off!
Sabbath is a lifelong learning process for me. I didn’t grow up with the practice, but when I was “this” close to pastoral burn out a number of years ago someone suggested it.
I still don’t always get it right (sometimes not often, either) but here’s how I approach it when I feel I’m closer to getting it: I try to pay attention…which means no personal screens; not surf the web, check email, etc.. I put my phone on airplane mode or Do Not Disturb that day and ‘try’ not to look at or respond to texts (besides the friends and family I set up to break through DND. I don’t do anything that is work… church, school,, yard work, housework, etc. (And yes, my wife and I do this together)
As hard as that is, and impossible sounding, I find more energy and focus the rest of the week for those things, and for me it’s like the tithe: I can do more with 90% than I ever would with 100% having given the first 10 to God.
But that’s what I don’t do: What I do? Sleep in. Spend some extended time with Jesus. Have lunch with a friend or one of my kids. Take a long walk. Watch a movie with my wife. Have an awesome dinner (cooking isn’t work for us, we love doing it together). It’s like a weekly holiday (think of what you’d do on Thanksgiving or Christmas).
Honestly even the imperfect pursuit of Sabbath has probably saved my life. I’m not religious about it, I don’t think if I mess up I’ve sinned…I believe in New Covenant freedom when it comes to Sabbath…but I do think it’s a principle that is ‘made for us’ and keeps us healthy.
Sorry for the long response… but you asked! 🙂
Hello from your “best friend…the one that tells you that when I rides with you, I grows closer to Jesus!”
Thank you for all you’ve done for my spiritual growth!
🙂
Seriously, the two word encapsulation of the book was brilliant: Pay Attention. This is a challenge I’ve been working on in regards to my book reading. With our degree, we do lots of “inspectional reading” but there are times that I want, nay, need to slow down and pay better attention, and thus experience better retention.
Attention leads to Retention. That’ll preach!
Ain’t that the truth!!! SO MUCH INFORMATION. It’s like drinking from a fire-hose. Like you I have to find a better way to slow down and pay attention to what’s important and find a way to retain that. The trick for me is knowing the difference between THAT and all the info that I don’t need to try to retain.
But I guess that is part of what this Doctoral process is all about (I’ve started to call it a process vs. a program as I’ve been feeling like I’m being invited into a new lifelong journey, not working on something that will one day be finished)
Hi Tim,
Pay Attention and Slow Down really are the big take-aways from this entire semester. So simple and yet so hard to do some times. Most of the time I am pretty good at both, but this doctoral program has had me racing around a bit more than I like. I am curious about your Sabbath practices. What works for you personally and for your family?
I hope you are healing and resting well. You are in my prayers!
Jenny…thanks for your prayers. God is good and healing is happening quicker than anyone expected.
I shared some of my sabbath thought with Travis (above).
Honestly I’m not great at it still, but the pursuit of it has really been helpful for me, even if just to remember that slowing down and paying attention is so healthy and that I need to incorporate it the rest of my week, too.
I needed your posts, even when my body slows down, my my mind is still usually moving a million miles an hour. Digging through my NPO content has not helped! Analyzing, strategizing, connecting dots, comparing, planning, etc. I need to take more “mental Sabbaths”. Being in my head keeps me from being present while with others at moments as well. Thanks for the posts!
Adam, that’s great. “Mental Sabbaths”. I find that my one day a week of stopping helps remind me that it’s not just a one day thing.
In the New Covenant Jesus entered a permanent Sabbath rest that we are invited into. Curiously that’s a verse many use to deny the benefit of an ‘actual’ weekly sabbath, which I guess can work theologically, but I wonder if it works practically… does anyone who doesn’t stop once a week actually stop enough throughout the week? Maybe, but I couldn’t pull it off.
But I’m in the same boat with the constant attempt at ‘connecting the dots’. Sometimes I just need to stop, take a breath, get present with others and myself and God, find some joy, and get back to it after clearing my head and soul.
“But I’m finding that week after week it’s my approach to it, more than the perfect execution of it, that changes the way I think and the way I live, and it gives me a weekly reminder to always look for opportunities to slow down, and to pay attention.”
Lately I have stopped taking a Sabbath. It’s felt like there is too much to do to take a day off. And yet, as you pointed out in your post, it is probably the most important thing I could do. Thank you for this reminder. I also appreciate your comment above – that by taking a sabbath, it will help me to pay attention to ways I can slow down and be more present.
Hey Tim, you quoted Psalm 46:10 in your blog and mentioned how you do everything fast. Of course this is because God made you this way. Therefore, I have an easy question. What does it mean for you to move fast, while being still at the same time? Take your time to answer.
Tim, I love the theme you have throughout all of your blog posts. It’s the concept of “non-anxious presence”. I want to be so bold as to say, that if most of us could be this kind of presence the world would change…we would actually hear each other. Tim, I am so excited to see where you and your ministry go with you at the helm listening non anxiously (with some anxiousness sneaking in I’m sure). I don’t have a question per se, but want to just recognize your effort and awareness! Bless your non anxious heart! I mean that:)