Jerry Seinfeld and continual spiritual development
In the productivity world, there is a legendary story about Jerry Seinfeld and a time he was struggling to write enough jokes to be successful. He realized that the more he wrote jokes, the better he would get at writing jokes. So he challenged himself to write a joke a day. The way the story goes, he would write an X on his calendar every day he wrote a joke. After a bit, he realized how much fun it was to see a successive string of red x’s on his calendar. So he tried to never break the string.
This analogy has been used for years in the productivity and habit tracking (like James Clear’s book Atomic Habits, which is absolutely fantastic btw) to help folks understand the power of developing slow, and intentional habits towards whatever goal or future they want to attain.
It works great.
But I want to talk about spiritual development.
And before you think I am getting onto some sort of “hustle up your relationship with Jesus train”…you can relax.
Because it is pretty much the exact opposite (sort of).
I think the benefit still exists. When we look at really slow, non-wild spiritual habits, I think we can begin to see the slow change Jesus is making in our hearts. While we can all (and probably have) turned to Jesus during personal times of cataclysm, its the work we do in the mundane ordinary that carries us the furthest. Sometimes we are building up a reserve of spiritual resilience for the rough times. At other times we are just enjoying a season of being in the presence of God in a consistent and realistic way. But if we aren’t spending the time in attentiveness to the presence of God, we aren’t going to have all of the things when we need it. And while I am not a big fan of what John Mark Comer calls “Project Self the Jesus way…”, if we aren’t drawing near to God…he won’t be drawing near to us (James 4:8)
I’m a big fan of the Lectio365 app and the YouVersion Bible app. I’ve noticed both of them let you know when you are in a usage streak. In the app and media world this is called “gamification”. I even have a scripture memorization app that works off of gamification theory. While for some folks this is a reward based pattern, for others I think its just a helpful reminder through a notification. For me, it is a little of both.
Over the last couple of years I have been using a specific wide margin study bible. One of the main reasons is it has plenty of blank pages in the back for whatever you want to fill them up with. One of my consistent uses is a short date indicator of every day I have spent time in scripture. And I will totally admit that there have been times when I made sure to get inside of it just to know that I can mark that day.
I don’t want to lose my streak.
And while it might be something silly…it means I have shown up that day. Encountering a presence larger than myself. Waiting and expecting for God to move. Learning a new thing, no matter how small. What I do know is those tiny, little, normal conversations and attentiveness to God seem to pay off. Sometimes I will be in the space of absolute normalcy, and the Holy Spirit decides to show up. It might be taking the time to routinely journal through an idea for a week.
I don’t know if Jerry ever thought his life hack would apply to an outlaw preacher in Louisiana trying to make sure he read the Bible every day.
Do you want to get occasional emails from me about spiritual formation and development? I send them out a couple times a month and I’d love to pop them to you in your inbox.