S2 E1 | The Rhythms That Shape Your Faith | After the Message

Welcome to the Celebration Church Orlando podcast.

This is a segment we like to call After the Message, where the conversation about life, God, and the Bible continue beyond Sunday.

We hope today's episode will encourage, enlighten, and inspire you.

Hello, Internet.

I'm sure you've missed us.

How could they not?

How could they not?

Welcome to After the Message.

This is a segment on the Celebration Church Orlando podcast.

My name's Nate, and I am joined by the senior pastor of Celebration Church Orlando, Pastor Keith Pittman.

How are you, my friend?

I am doing well.

Yeah.

I'm doing well.

How about you?

Doing pretty good.

Football season at the time of this recording is coming up.

Yeah.

My mind is thinking through.

Um, do you do fantasy football?

You don't do that.

Not anymore.

Okay.

No, yeah.

Yes, I'm I'm my mind's thinking a little bit about that.

I'm last in the draft, which I think is certainly been targeted by some of the guys in the church.

So I do feel a way about that.

So pray for me.

But it's it's an exciting season, a lot of moving parts, a lot of things going on, man.

But I'm glad to be back.

Yeah.

Uh on the verge of pumpkin spice latte season as well.

And so I'm sure a few of our listeners are excited about such things.

Present company included.

That's right.

So in this new season, we are tackling this idea of spiritual disciplines.

Uh in our church specifically, the season the series title is rhythms.

Um, you know, we have read in church history how it could be called rules of life, etc.

etc.

Basically just trying to figure out what we do with our time when it comes to following Jesus.

And so uh I guess I always like to ask you, get a little bit of inside scoop in the preparation for this series.

Uh what was the thought behind it?

Why did you think it may be beneficial to discuss and to teach about about rhythms?

Yeah.

Um it's it's a couple of layers to it.

There's there's certainly a seasonal dynamic connected to it.

Okay.

And so seasonally, I I'm aware of the rhythms of our church.

And one of the rhythms that we've been able to deduce is that in the summertime, people are traveling, there's a lot of things going on, so so folks may not be as present.

I get it, that's that's a part of it.

Um, so I wanted to have a series that was centered around, okay, like now that your kids are back in school and and your schedules are getting a little bit more regulated, we need to become more prioritized and intentional about, hey, how do we get back in rhythm with prioritizing um the things of God and the household of faith?

So there's certainly uh a cultural awareness of what this season represents for back to school season and things like that.

But I think the the the greater thing was really beginning to tackle and approach what does it really mean uh to to walk in fellowship with God in an intentional way that's not legalistic, but but how do we truly keep in step with the spirit?

And I think for me, um a lot of times when I'm thinking about what we're gonna be think, praying about what we're gonna be teaching to our church, um, it happens in patterns.

And I remember last year as I was reading through um the book of Galatians, I kind of pick a book that I'll read through a couple of times and and just kind of see what mines out.

And it starts with being for me, and then I begin to seek God, like, hey Lord, is this for somebody else?

Is this for our church?

Is this for my small group?

Who is it for?

And so when I came across Galatians 5 and it talked about keeping in step with the spirit, man, I sat with it for like three months and like, what is that?

What does that really mean, keeping in step with the spirit?

And I think that's where it began to mine out, like, okay, so the spirit is moving.

Our our our responsibility is to keep in step.

And that's when I just began to, my mind creatively thinks about rhythms, dancing, keeping in step with him.

He's taking the lead, but we want to follow accordingly.

And so that kind of like gave birth to it.

So that's my long way of saying it's a cultural thing, recognizing, hey, we need to prioritize the things of God, but also started last year when I was just looking at how do we keep in step with the spirit?

And I truly believe, after a lot of thinking, praying, resource, years of walking with the Lord, that those spiritual disciplines, rhythms, rule of life, whatever we want to call it, that that is how we keep in step with the spirit.

We are using the resources that are generously provided by practicing the way, John Mark Comer.

Can you talk a little bit about, you know, I know personally uh his writings and teachings have impacted you, but can you talk a little bit about why we chose to to partner or to utilize some of the things that that he's made available or that that organization now has made available to our church?

Yeah, like like you said, I I've I've been a person who's admired and appreciated and absorbed his work for years.

Um, I think the way he puts things in a very practical way.

I'm also connected to the reality that that this is a man who's a pastor.

He's pastored a church in a very secular city.

So this is not someone speaking from theories, but he does a phenomenal job at, in my opinion, pulling the ancient practices of our faith and contextualizing it in the modern way.

So something that I would like to say when I'm describing our church to people is we're ancient future.

It's pulling from the traditions of the past while simultaneously knowing that we're present church that is trying to lead people to the future.

So um I think he encapsulates that very well.

So I've read multiple books from him and just as my own source of pers perspective and things like that.

But when he did come out with his book, Practicing the Way, um, I actually did it with a small group with some of the guys from the church when it first came out.

So this is going back over a year or so ago, probably two years at this point.

And I remember going through it then and him walking through these spiritual disciplines and and honestly sitting with guys through it, and it was like so eye-opening to them.

It was almost as if they had never heard some of it before.

Now they've heard it practically in teachings, and we've led our church through a spiritual discipline season um in an intentional way before, but I think the way that it was packaged, it really landed because it was so it was so within reach.

So once we saw that, I'm like, great.

So we took it through, we took our church or took our our team through that, and it was great.

Then when I began to recognize, like, hey, this is more than a book, he's actually creating resources and rolling this out so it actually becomes something that is accessible, not only to individuals, but to the church as well.

Um, I monitored it for about a year and looked at it and gauged it myself.

And that's when I said, man, I think this is the right time to pull this into our church.

So we're still on-ramping it.

We're still going to continue to utilize those resources.

Um, they make it available for free.

And so um, he's in the camp with the Bible project.

All those things are just incredible resources that they make available to our church.

And so for me, it just seemed like a no-brainer.

I just don't believe in reinventing the wheel.

Like there's a great resources out there.

Um, it's trusted resources and people that I truly do believe and trust in.

So, yes, let's get our church involved.

You kind of opened up this series distinguishing and defining for us the difference between a rhythm, a routine, and a rut.

And I think that that was certainly helpful for our congregation, but I'm sure there's people listening who A may not have been there or B, don't attend our church, but they tune into the pod, you know.

So I think for the sake of this um season of After the Message, could you run through that uh just really quickly here?

Like, because rhythm and routine, they kind of sound synonymous.

They do.

You know, we we understand a little bit uh of the rut, but I think it would be helpful for our listeners just so they know as we're talking about these things in future episodes what we're talking about.

Yeah, so uh a routine, and I think this is where when I chose to really lean into this, it actually happened as a result of a congregation, a member that I was talking to, and I was kind of letting them know, uh giving them a sneak peek into where we were going.

And and he was like, Man, I'm looking forward to hearing that because I have really strong routines, and and and he was beginning to share of just kind of like how sometimes people make fun of him because he has such strong routines.

And he's like, I don't think routines should be vilified, and I'm like, no, they shouldn't.

So that kind of helped me to say, hey, I don't want to vilify routines, routines are not bad at all.

A routine in this in at its core is simply a decision you make in advance.

So you're saying, okay, I I have a goal, and that goal is I want to lose 50 pounds.

I need to begin to build a set of behaviors that's gonna allow me to accomplish that.

That's gonna include me watching what I eat.

It's gonna include me going to the gym.

Like I'm beginning to create a series of behaviors to match a goal that I'm trying to reach.

Yeah, that's ultimately what a routine is.

I found my my way of doing that.

A rut is when you don't revisit it.

So you become so rigid and so dogmatic about the decision that you made that you have decided not only am I going to the gym, but I'm going to the gym on Mondays from eight until 10.

And I don't care what's going on in my life, I'm going to the gym on Mondays from eight to ten.

Now, maybe that could be a good on-ramp because if you know that maybe it's easy for you to convince yourself not to do it, maybe that's possible.

But if something happens in your family, something happens with your schedule, and something comes up and you just can't move past it, that you're like, I'm not going to go and watch my child be born because I got this.

You have that routine has become a rut that is not giving you life.

It's outlived its purpose, and you're not able to recognize that I need to pivot, which is where rhythm comes in.

So rhythm basically becomes a routine with grace built in it.

Yes, I'm going to still stick with this outline of what I intend to do, but there's grace.

And if I need to pivot my my chest day to Tuesday because my schedule won't allow for it, there's grace.

If I need to move this to do that, there's grace.

I still have the routine, but it's saturated in grace, so I can be flexible with what I need to do.

I think that's the biggest um distinction when we think about Jesus confronting and being confronted by people who were constantly challenging him because he was going against the grain of their customs.

They were so obsessed with it that it became a rut.

And they didn't sense that no, that this is a rhythm.

He's still doing the things of God.

They just missed it all together.

So for me, it's very much yes, have a healthy routine, but make sure that grace is in it.

Make sure you can breathe in it, and that's how we have good rhythms.

It sounds like there's a little bit more emphasis on the why and not so much the what.

Yes, I guess.

Absolutely.

Not that the what doesn't matter, but the what can fluctuate and change in one season.

1000%.

In one season, let's just use the gym analogy, for example.

I may go to a standard like weights and treadmill type flow.

But in order to stay engaged in that, I may move to a jujitsu gym for a little bit, like just to switch things up.

But I I think that's kind of where you're going with that.

1000%.

When it comes to um 2026 ears, when we say discipline, sometimes that can not land so well, even though, you know, not really that big of a deal.

But um you mean because it's like in the Bible?

Yeah, you know, or it sounds too rigid or too strict.

But um spiritual discipline, well, you know, basically, what is that and yeah, why is it important?

Yeah, spirit spiritual disciplines are at its core, it's a set of intentional things that we do that fosters our relationship with Christ.

I would say to add a layer to that, it would be these are things that I'm doing to be conformed into the image of Christ.

So that's what my my disciplines are.

This is what I'm working towards.

The Bible says don't be conformed by the image of the world, but be transformed.

So so here's what this means we are all being formed by something.

That's that's uh that's just a fact.

We're being formed by what we listen to, we're being formed by our family.

You're in a season where you have your two young boys who are busy.

You're you're being formed by that, you're being formed by your marriage.

We're always being formed by the things around us.

That's just kind of what it is.

What our spiritual disciplines are, it's the space where we can be intentional about who we're being informed into.

And so for us, I look at it like through the lens of like there's like two primary buckets for me, at least when I think about it.

I look at the spiritual disciplines as like the inhale and exhale.

Okay.

There's the things that I'm taking in, that's me taking in, um, that's me reading the word, that's me doing these things that draws me closer to God.

And then there's the exhale, which allows me to demonstrate my walk with God so that other people can be the beneficiaries of it.

Said another way, some people would say that our spiritual disciplines break down into two primary categories, and that is um the disciplines of engagement and then ones of abstinence.

Okay.

And so what that basically means is these are things that I'm choosing to do, reading the word, prayer, um, connected to community.

I'm doing these things so that I can be drawn closer to Christ and be connected to community.

But then there's also the things of abstinence, things that I'm not going to do.

That's fasting, that's seasons of solitude.

It's the things that I'm choosing um to take a step back from so that I can be formed.

So for me, it's inhale, exhale.

For others, it's things I'm going to do, things I'm not going to do.

But at its core, they're important because it allows us to have a good, healthy balance of how do I engage the presence of God and then how do I engage God's people.

Yeah.

It can be, I guess we could conflate discipline um with a works-based righteousness mentality.

I think a lot of us um have come from traditions um that have sort of emphasized that in an unhealthy manner, yeah.

Where the thing that we're doing becomes almost the thing that we worship, right?

As opposed to the person that we worship.

So how is this not like a works-based righteousness mentality mindset or way of life?

Yeah.

Um I get it.

So full full disclosure, man, I I came up in a very religious, performative environment.

Yeah.

Um, and and and when I say that, it's it's it's really not built on a foundation of like, hey, everything is meant to be disregarded, but it was it was always built on this foundation of yes, grace is available, yes, God loves you, but but man, you need to bridge that gap.

And your disciplines became a demonstration of how much you love God.

Got it.

So it wasn't like so it was never taught to me that you have to earn God's love, but it was certainly like, but show God how much you love him by how much you give, show God how much you love him by how much you serve, show him by how much you by how much you read.

These things became demonstrations of your love.

Um, and so that creates stress, it creates anxiety, it creates competition, um, it creates a whole lot of things, and that was a little bit of what Megan and I were brought up in initially.

Um, and so then we got to the other end of the spectrum where we were introduced to God's love and joy and peace and kindness and all these other things that were a part of your a part of your walk with God.

And so I like to say it this way.

Um I don't regret the structures and the importance of reading the word of God every day.

I don't regret being taught the importance of of praying daily, having a rhythm of that and and really locking into that.

The things that I do feel were a little bit more harmful was on those days, if you did not pray for two hours and 40 minutes, because our ecosystem was one that says you need to tithe your time to God, not just your resources.

So um, so if you didn't give two hours and 40 minutes to God, then you are not honoring God with your time.

And so the condemnation, the shame, like I genuinely remember now, like I look back at it and it's like You're doing okay.

I'm I'm I'm trying.

I like I like we had all of our family's been together recently, and we've just been having like these moments where you talk about the past as we always do.

Um, and my oldest son Keith Jr.

was talking to us about just how much Meg and I have changed in our spiritual walk because he was old enough to kind of see like our radical transformation in the journey as we walk with God.

And he was like, bro, like he said, I remember there was times where like y'all were just so locked in.

Like we would be looking at our watches and saying, like, wait a minute.

So I got up and I prayed for 20 minutes, then I prayed for another 30 minutes, and then it would be like 11:30 at night, like, bro, like I'm I'm 20 minutes short, I gotta go pray.

Like literally being to the point where now you look at it and you're like, that is so ridiculous.

But genuinely feeling like if you didn't meet the quota, you were letting God down.

So I understand if you come from an environment even remotely close to that, that telling someone the disciplines and doing these things can feel a lot like being restricted once again.

So that's that's a part of a person's spiritual journey, their trauma.

I've been there, I get it, brother.

I get it.

We could trade stories, we can trauma bond about it.

Here's the other side of the coin.

The other side of the coin is when I think about my relationship with my wife.

Um I don't have to work for her love, but our relationship does require intentional work.

Sure.

So we met in high school, we became good friends, we reconnected after high school or after college, and so now we began to really foster and work towards something.

And it took effort to call her.

It took effort.

I couldn't text her because I'm old enough that that didn't even exist back then.

There you go.

I had to actually call and hope she answered the phone.

Wow.

Like, imagine that.

Um, working through that.

Hey, do you want to go out tonight?

Like, and we made effort.

We spent time together, and then that moved to the next level.

Then we got engaged and then we got married, and then we continue to work.

And so when I think about the spiritual disciplines now, it's not that I'm working for God's love.

I don't have to work to earn God's love, but because I am loved by God, it fuels the things that I do.

Sure.

So because I love my wife, yes, there are times I feel like talking.

There are also times I don't feel like talking.

But because I love her, and if she's like, hey, can we talk?

The answer is, yeah, we can talk.

Because what else am I going to say?

Yeah.

So it's it's the love that fuels the things that we do.

And so for me, it's just looking at it through the lens of, and I think that's why Paul does use the church as the example of being the bride of Christ, because it becomes a very real example that a lot of us can identify with husband, wives, spending time together.

It's sacrificial, it's life-giving, it's it's work.

But at the same time, I'm not working for it, but I'm not going to say that it doesn't require effort and intentionality to make sure you foster the relationship.

So to me, I think that's the simplest way I can put it.

And again, the goal is not to believe that we can earn God's love.

I read my Bible, he's he's more pleased with me.

But because I love God and the way that I recognize that God loves me, I'm going to do my part to try to be intentional with spending time with him.

It's a vehicle, right?

It's, you know, it's not the destination, but we can't get there unless we participate in some way, shape.

We can't just like be more like Jesus through osmosis necessarily.

Like there's got to be an action.

We need to, and we need that that guide and we need community.

There's a lot to go with it.

Like, I know that you're one who always asks the questions, but what was your spiritual upbringing?

How did you how do you engage the and understand the spiritual disciplines as you walk it out now?

Yeah.

It probably wasn't as a it probably wasn't as extreme as the two hours and 40 minute tithing your time thing, but you know, it was pretty close.

And it mainly had to do with church attendance, right?

It mainly had to do with Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, you know, then you got your Thursday visitation, you know, being being at church, I think.

Um and then the abstaining part was a really big almost to an unhealthy degree where you kind of escape as and like removed yourself from just normal society.

Sure.

Um, because you can't engage with those people or you can't be seen in that place.

Um don't let your good be evil spoken of.

Yeah.

Like what fellowship does light have with the dark.

Exactly.

So all of these, all of these verses and um biblical principles that were sort of twisted, or or maybe even not in really intentionally either, just a pre maybe a poor uh understanding of what really the heart behind it was, which I think is the human condition, right?

Like we even see it with the people who are criticizing Jesus, they think that they're genuinely doing it from a place of revere and righteousness for God, as if the law is um the priority, uh when in reality, you know, Jesus says, like, I am the law.

I am the law.

So um, so yeah, that's that's kind of where my journey began.

So that's that's I mean, and and I think there's so many people that may have similar on ramps to it where like a a certain really focused expression of the faith can almost make you feel like traumatized.

I I remember talking with someone who recently um said to me, like, hey, you know, I'm I'm coming back to church, I'm getting re-engaged.

Um and there are certain terms that are said in church that I'm not saying that we can't say, but it just reminds me of where I came from.

Um and and inviting people to lift their hands and engage the presence of God, which to me are very simple things of just how we participate.

But for some people, it was like if you don't do these things, then then there's hidden sin in your life.

So you just realize how even in spiritual things, to me, the enemy can try to find a space to even try to hijack certain principles that are found clearly in scripture, but weaponize it in a way that creates a trauma story that makes it hard for us to engage something that genuinely is liberating, liberating, but but somehow it's become restricting because of how it's been misused by man.

Because the human condition sometimes allowed it forces us to put these constraints.

Strengths around it, and that's what I think is the very thing that Jesus came to confront.

I think we're so I think we're so hesitant or afraid of being hurt, though, or we're afraid of feeling discomfort that we can try to avoid things or instances or places altogether, you know.

Like that guy may have been away from the church for a long time because he didn't want to have to face like somebody saying, Hey, lift your hands, you know.

But I mean pain's not always bad, right?

Like we can we can give our pain to God and hopefully have him redeem it.

And some and a lot of times what it really does is the Bible talks about how our suffering and our trials actually produce good things in us, like perseverance and um, so yeah.

Let's talk a little bit about the craziness of 21st century life, the the contemporary modern world we live in, all of the things that are vying for our attention, even all of the good things, the responsibilities that we have.

Um somebody could be sitting here saying, like, hey man, uh, I don't have another minute to give.

I can't add another thing to my life.

Yeah.

Um what what what can I do?

Like, I want to be close, genuinely closer to God, but I don't feel like that I can put in the time that's that's required to do so.

Like, how do you encourage that person?

Yeah, I am I get it.

You know, it's it's it's something that I firmly do believe that it's it's so pervase in our culture where we're just overextended, we're so maxed out, there's so many things on our plate.

And and I certainly think that in those spaces where we feel exhausted, we feel stretched, that the idea of adding something to our life can seem overwhelming.

And like me mentioning two hours and 40 minutes, it almost sounds like a fantasy.

Like, bro, where am I going to get that from?

Like, I'm trying to figure out just how to get up and get out of the house with my family.

So, so so for that, I want to pause and say, I understand.

The the other side of that, and this is where I think it's really important, where I think it really does challenge us to evaluate some of the decisions that we're making.

So, so I'm surrounded by people of so many different age groups, so many different backgrounds, so many things that are going on in their life, and I I love it by people who are retired, by people who are just going to college and everything in between.

And and one of the consistent things that I see is the things that we choose to do with our time.

So I I've I find that it's very rare, not that it's impossible, it's very rare that it's not that we don't have time, it's just that we're allowing that time to be occupied by so many other things that then we are trying to figure out where do I cram Jesus into time that's already been spoken for.

So for me, it's it's asking the question first can we back up and take inventory of all the yeses that you currently are allowing to occupy your plate?

And then just saying, Do you have to go out three nights a week?

Do you have to go out and do the like genuinely looking and seeing?

Let's evaluate what you currently have going on to see if there's any room for stuff there.

Then from there, it does become beginning to change the way that we look at the um spiritual disciplines or looking at the way that we engage the things of God.

Because I truly believe that it's not about adding another thing, it's about allowing that to be the first thing because it adds perspective to everything else.

Got it.

Um, when I engage the things of God, it adds perspective on how I steward my time with my family, how I steward our resources as a church.

It it sets the tone for so many other things.

So to me, it's a it's a huge priority because it helps sets the tone for everything else that's in our life.

So I do understand and I do get it that sometimes we're stretched so thin.

But I also think this is where having that spiritual assessment is so important because what that assessment does is it allows us to answer authentically, honestly, with where we are, and it reveals to us maybe the blind spot or the areas of our lives where we're we're not engaging as much.

I would be very curious to see what comes to the surface, and maybe that's the thing that we need to lean into.

So instead of it being just this blank canvas of I need to do all nine, twelve, fifteen, depending on how we look at the disciplines, um, I need to do all of these a hundred percent every single time.

But maybe when we look at the assessment, maybe the thing that's actually missing there is solitude.

So it's not about adding something, it's about taking something away.

Got it.

So learning to see what is the thing in this season of life that God has kind of revealed to you and leaning into that a little bit more instead of feeling like I gotta pray for two hours and then I gotta do this, and then I gotta go to group.

It's it's more so what's my season of life?

What is God really challenging me with in the season?

And maybe I'm so busy, that's the problem.

Maybe solitude is the thing that God is challenging me to do, and that's what I'm gonna start working on.

Start small.

Yeah, it's it's not this, like I I have friends of mine um that um that bro, like they go on like three-month retreats.

They don't do it every year, but like one, like, oh yeah, I I have like this every five years, I go on a three-month retreat and I go to this secluded place and I I pray with monks for about two weeks.

We just sit there and then I do this and I do that.

I'm like, for three months?

Like, so in that matrix, I'm a backslider because I'm like, bro, I don't know where I'm gonna have three months to do that.

Yeah, but we all try to take the steps that we can.

So I don't know if I'm a three-month dude.

I don't know if that's just my temperament.

But man, give me two weeks, but I'll work towards it.

But hang with a monk for two weeks.

Yeah, for sure.

Like, I I know you would.

You would love it.

You would love it.

Um, but genuinely just seeing where you are, seeing what step you can take, starting off small, but I think that in a nutshell, we're all busy, we all have a lot going on.

So maybe it's not adding something, maybe it's taking something away, and maybe that's the thing that God's leading us to do in this season.

It's kind of like a budget, right?

Yeah, like yes.

You when you talk to uh if you're brave enough to talk to like a financial planner, which can be terrifying sometimes.

And you're like, Yeah, I just don't have money to save, and they go, Well, you have 33 subscriptions right now, and you probably don't even know about half of them anymore.

You know what I mean?

So it's just it's inviting someone else's eyes onto your life too, which is what the assessment you know practically does for you.

Um, but yeah, just inviting another set of eyes to take a look and go, Well, you do have time for this and you have time for that.

Like, what can we what can we work with?

Yeah, what can we adjust?

What can we adjust and and take some baby steps, right?

Because then you just start to develop a hunger and thirst for okay, well that that's great that I've that I've done this now, but what else is there?

Like I didn't know I could be this close to God.

Is there is there another step?

And uh you'll find that there are.

Yeah.

One of our one of our elders said to me something that was so simple, but it was it was really meaningful.

He said that, you know, worship is in essence anything that you're willing to orient your life around.

Idolatry is anything that you're willing to orient your life around.

So it's genuinely saying, okay, what am I allowing to set the tone and how am I going to orient my life around that?

So when you look at it through the lens of what you just described, like what are what are some areas I need to audit?

At the core of it, it's still making sure that even the things that are on my plate are they prioritized around my relationship with God.

So yes, I have to work, but is it prioritized around the things of God?

Yes, I'm gonna prioritize my family.

Again, we allude back to you have small children.

All my kids are adults, so they can feed themselves, Nate.

In fact, I love when they feed themselves, but but you're in a different season than I am.

But how do I still presence and prioritize God even though my kids require more for me?

It still can be done.

It's just a matter of how do we include our family in it.

Whereas mine is a little bit more like I can do it for myself and Megan and I together.

But for you, you can still prioritize God and just maybe with your whole family, and that's still honoring.

Your kids feed uh themselves, my kids throw food at me.

So that's where we are, Dick.

I get it, brother.

Just two ends of the spectrum.

And I just want my kids to bring me home something every now and then.

Exactly.

And hope they don't throw it at you.

I had uh I had a moment with a friend who was just had gone through a a similar life season, uh, you know, in parenting, and I was just talking about the difficulty or how I miss my previous rhythm, you know, with without having children, and how I just felt just kind of lost in that.

And the person was just talking to me about, well, maybe this is an opportunity for you to experience God in a new way, um, and for you to encounter him in even new geographical places that you may not normally do it.

Like, yeah, you may normally have it in your chair with your coffee at this time, but if someone's got to be dropped off at school or if you're waking up at 6 a.m.

because someone's crying, like there may be a new way to to approach that.

And so I think that's also a testament to how gracious and loving our God is.

Absolutely.

How the story of the gospel is actually him coming to meet us, yes, um, instead of us elevating ourselves to meet him, too.

I think what's so like I love I love that.

Something that has been a new rhythm that I've implemented um recently has been like I I'm I'm really I feel like every couple of years I try to lock in on fitness, but I'm really like locked in.

You kind of get in that 50 plus mark, and you're like, okay, I gotta get serious.

So like I'm I'm really locked in.

I'm I'm I'm going to the gym.

I have my my rhythm that I'm working.

One of the things that has been so spiritually enriching for my soul is at the end of my workout, I always spend 30 minutes in a sauna in dead silence.

Yeah.

Like and I'll put on my noise cancellation headphones on, but I won't have any music playing.

And I'll just sit there, and that's my time of one of the disciplines of just meditating.

And I'm just processing.

And yes, my mind will want to think about a I'll I'll I'll bring it back.

It has been so enriching.

So to your point, yes, like I'm still at the gym.

It's not like I'm like, I gotta go to the gym and then I gotta do my 30 minutes of meditation.

Like I found a way to integrate it into the rhythm of what my life is already doing, and and now I I don't want to miss it.

Like I look forward to sometimes going to the gym just so I can go in a sauna and just sit there and and just meditate on the goodness of God sometimes style, like luckily for the sauna that's at our gym, a lot of people aren't in there.

Sometimes I'll go in there and just shed a tear processing through things, man.

Like it's just so it's so enriching.

So, to your point, how do I integrate it into what I'm already doing?

Yeah.

Meditation, man, lost art, right?

Absolutely.

Lost art and uh something that is very difficult to do given all the noise, given all the things that are maybe even requiring or at least vying for our attention.

But I think what you said is truly helpful for maybe a lot of people.

Like my mind wanders, but it's the discipline of being able to know, but I can redirect, you know, like we have not to get like too woo-woo, but we have way more power over our minds than than we know.

Yes.

Um, and sometimes it's just like aligning your mind back to to where it needs to be.

So you mentioned a little bit how this portion of or this discipline, this meditation has been transformative for you.

Have there been any other in your life previously that you just look back on and like, man, when this got honed in, or when this happened, or when I was able to really grasp this practice, uh it it kind of changed the game for me spiritually?

Um, this is such an interesting one because an on-ramp certainly is one that was rooted in legalism and um and I get it.

Yeah, but my initial journey with God, like we would fast, like we do at our church, like we we fast.

Um, and we would do a 40-day fast.

Um so we would do a 40-day fast, but the fast had different themes at different points.

Okay.

And um, we did it for many years, and every year it was something that you look forward to, but it was way more hardcore.

Like we didn't have gluten allocation, like we didn't have a lot of the things that we have with science now.

So it was like, this is what the fast is, this is what we're all doing.

There was no no get out of jail free card.

I give grace to everybody, but you know what I mean.

There was no there was no easy fasting.

I gotcha.

Um, so you had to like lock in, and so it was like pretty regimented.

Um, and yes, on paper, because it literally was on paper, like what are we fasting from today?

Like, and you would see it.

Okay, it seems so harsh, but but bro, what that did for me as far as drawing closer to God, like genuinely having something that was outlined for me saying, like, hey, this week we're fasting inclusive of food, but we're also fasting from TV.

And so you just knew that as a community, there were other people in our church.

We're all fasting from TV.

Um, nowadays people may look at that critically, like you can't tell people what to do, but for us, it was so sharpening, like it was so good because then you redirected that time into spending time with family and to and to reading the word, and it really honed you more.

So I would just say overall, the the discipline of fasting absolutely is a game changer for me.

And I still do.

I fast every Wednesday.

Typically, whenever I try to like lock in on message prep, like trying to at least ideate what I feel like God's speaking to me, I try to abstain, just just my discipline before the Lord.

Um, I fast the first three days of every month.

Um, and that's just my way of setting it up and saying, saying, Lord, this is this is your month.

I want to be sensitive to you.

So um, so that's just kind of a rhythm that I have.

I'm not legalistic about it.

If we're traveling and if I'm on a cruise ship and it happens to be the first three days of the month, guess what?

I'm not fasting on those three days.

It doesn't mean that I don't love the Lord, but I paid for these meals and I'm going to get my money's worth out of it.

That's right.

I'm going to lock in and then we'll adjust it.

So I'm not legalistic about it.

But fasting is probably one of the ones that have really helped me.

And it's, it's, it's so hard to put into words what that does for your spiritual life.

Um I wish I could give you the transactional like return of investment.

Yeah.

But what it what it does is it teaches you how to abstain so that it it allows you to be more sensitive to the things of God.

So fasting, absolutely it.

Meditating is is been one.

And meditating for me is is it's not just a process of thinking, but it's the process of of legitimately processing through the word of God.

And so what that can look like for me, it's sometimes it can be me thinking through, let's say, even for instance, for this series, rhythms, it it allows me to kind of break this down and then begin to just process through the implications of it.

Man, what are my rhythms?

What are my rhythms as it relates to me engaging the word of God?

What are my rhythms with my family?

But just meditating and inviting God into that has been really um good because it it kind of removes the read the Bible in a month type pressure.

It just allows you to go with the pace of grace, man, and that has been incredibly unriching for me.

So slowing down and fasting have been incredible for my my soul and still is.

Yeah.

Imagine that, you know, in a in a consumeristic society, not consuming, you know.

Imagine how that could how that can actually help you.

It's a whole different paradigm, man.

Really, we're just we're just telling our our natural bodies like no, like you I don't submit to your authority, you know, right?

I submit to Christ, right?

And so uh it's a it's a good it's a good outward reminder too of a of an inward um commitment.

Also, I mean, even physiologically, clarity of thought, uh simple things like that that can go a long way in our our connection with God.

Um Hey man, I've been reading my Bible for a while, been praying for a while, I'm not seeing results.

Uh how can we how can we pastor that that person?

Yeah, um I get it.

I think the the the let me just skip past the the the surface level.

Okay, I get it, I empathize, I've said it, I get it.

Let's let's move past that.

I think the the problem is the fact that we're saying results in the first place because I don't sense that our our calling with God is to produce results.

Now, yes, we want to see fruit, we want to see growth, so we can define what results mean.

And I and I'm sure that that's probably just some semantics, but when we think about results, it's like I'm doing this, I'm looking for an outcome.

It becomes very transactional.

And so I did my part where where can I get the results?

Where can I see the weight loss?

Where can I see what's been promised to me?

So for me, it it's it's causing us to slow down and saying, hey, the the goal of all of this stuff is not to to produce results, it's to produce fruit.

And the thing about fruit is fruit takes time.

Fruit genuinely requires you to cultivate the ground, it requires you to plant seeds, it requires you to water, it requires you to wait, it requires you to do these things, and then there's growth, and then there's fruit.

So we're talking about a principle that is so important and spoiler alert, we're gonna be hearing about this a whole lot in the future.

That's my quick, that's my breadcrumb that people will make sense of.

We're gonna talk a whole lot about abiding.

Okay.

What does it really mean to abide?

And so a fruit is not struggling to try to produce result, it it abides.

And as it abides, it does indeed produce fruit.

So for me, my encouragement is one, don't give up.

But then after you have a season of, okay, I'm not giving up, I'm I'm I'm doing my thing, that's when you begin to take the spiritual assessment, coming back to that, and saying, okay, the things that I'm doing, maybe there's something else God wants to do.

Maybe the the breakthrough, if we want to use a more healthy spiritual word instead of result, if the breakthrough that I'm looking for, maybe it's not in me consuming more content, maybe it's me abstaining.

Maybe I need to scale back on watching these shows.

Maybe I need to scale back on these things.

And that's where the spiritual assessment and other things can help us to fine-tune what we believe God's drawing us to.

But I think the first thing is to stop thinking of it, of results, think of it as fruit, which are two completely different things.

And sometimes you need to add things, but sometimes you need to abstain from things in order to see the fruit in your life.

Yeah.

Shift an expectation to maybe you know, recategorizing what a result actually.

You know, Christ lived the the perfect uh Christian life, if you will, before that was even a term.

Um, and he was taken to a cross to be to be killed.

So the result of that definitely um wouldn't what we would call a breakthrough, yeah, right, in our term, but uh it was what needed to happen, which gave the whole world an opportunity to be reconciled to God.

So that's a pretty good result, if you will.

Yeah, for sure.

This is going to be a a great season, I think, for our church at large, obviously on after the message, some some good uh question and answer time, good discussion time, but anything that you are looking forward to, or maybe anticipating any anything for our church, or or just even you personally, as we discover what these rhythms can do for us in our walk with God?

Yeah, I I I'm I'm at a point where having you kind of go through these periods of time where you you recognize your season.

And um the pandemic was the major life-altering, time-shifting way in which we engage church, community, and the ripple effects are still felt.

You have people who have not been back to church, you have people who are watching online, people who've grown distant, everything in between.

And you have other people who've who've swung right back into their old rhythms and routines.

I I I think what I'm hoping for for our church is a is a greater hunger.

Um, is a is a greater is a is a a reordering of prioritizing and seeing the the value of engaging the presence of God, connected to the community of faith.

If there's something that I could really, really lean into is us recognizing the importance of us being together.

That's that's such a vital part of our spiritual formation.

And um I I believe that what the pandemic produced is um a lot of Lone Ranger Christians where we become spiritual nomads and I'll watch this online, I'll go to this church, and then I'll jump over here, I'll do this thing, and like and I'm kind of like just flowing all around.

And I've I've seen such a significant uptick in that.

And and I don't I don't vilify people who are searching for a space for them to land.

But what we see in scripture is that so many references are like it's a grarian culture.

So you're rooted, you're planning, you're you're like there's there's these these nuances of being connected and allowing it to flourish and grow.

So my hope is is that by the end of this, which I don't think that this is going to end, this is more of like a something that will permeate through our culture.

Um, but I'm hoping to see more people rooted, rooted in community, rooted in the things of God, rooted in genuine seasons of of prayer and fasting, just rooted in these things and allowing um the presence and fruit of God to really bear in their lives.

So I think that's it.

So in a nutshell, I'm looking for more people to grow mature in their faith.

Now, what does that practically look like?

There's all types of metrics you can throw out there, but it's just people who are producing the fruit of kindness, love, joy, peace, seeing that in people's lives is what I'm hoping that this can hopefully cultivate.

That's great.

Yeah.

That could be huge for our church, for our city, for the world.

Indeed.

Looking forward to it.

After the message, new season is finally here.

And uh, we hope that you enjoy the ride along with us.

We'll talk to you next week.

Thanks for listening to After the Message.

If you want to learn more about Celebration Church Orlando, visit our website, celebrationorl.org, or follow us on social media at celebrationorl.