Ten Minute Mystic: Small Disciplines That Make a Big Difference

     Their numbers were relatively small.  But their impact would be immeasurable. 

            As Jesus scanned the group who’d gathered near him he saw people with no one in their corner, people weary of all that was wrong in the world, people missing out on the best of life, and people hungering for the world to be made right (Matt. 5:2-12).  The poor.  The mournful.  The meek.  The hungry and thirsty.

            And Jesus told them: “You are the salt of the earth…You are the light of the world” (Matt. 5:13-16).  This rag-tag crowd of the fringe and the forgotten would drive decay from the earth and darkness from the world.  Their influence would be felt not just in Jerusalem.  Not just in Israel.  Not just in the Roman Empire.  They would affect all the earth and the entire world.

            Their numbers were relatively small.  But their impact would be immeasurable.

            It is inspiring the way a little can result in a lot.

            That’s what this series is about.  It’s about the way God can take the small and do the big.  It’s a principle woven into the world he’s created.  Think of the influence of single individuals like Mother Theresa, Nelson Mandella, Bishop Desmond Tutu, and Billy Graham.  God has the amazing capacity to take the small and do the big.

            Little is the new big.

            Authors Dan and Chip Heath point to this principle.[i]  They write about Sally Herndon whose mandate was to improve public health by reducing smoking in North Carolina.  It was a daunting task in the early 1990’s.  So, she and her team started small.  They focused on just making North Carolina schools smoke-free.  They met with one school board at a time.  After ten years, they had persuaded 10% of the state’s districts to go tobacco free.  Four years later it was up to 50%.  By 2007 it was 100%.  Next Herndon tackled the hospitals.  Then the restaurants.  Then the bars.  And after twenty years of small-step after small-step, the adult smoking rate had dropped 25%.  Herndon’s little victories over time turned into a giant victory.

            Authors Dan and Chip Heath urge us to think of two inmates.  One comes up with a daring and bold escape plan every month.  The other just determines to tunnel his way out with a spoon one handful at a time.  The latter, the Heaths argue, will inevitably succeed far more often than the former.  Whether the issue is social change or corporate success, it’s the persistent small efforts that pay off big over time.

            Little is the new big.

            I’ve experienced this in my own life.  I’ve written five books.  Two of those books were literally written 30 minutes at a time.  With my congregational ministry, family, and other activities I could only find 30 minutes a day to write.  At first I felt like giving up.  What I really needed was a few months off with days and days of writing, I thought.  Thirty minutes was hardly enough time to get my mind focused and write a few sentences.  Most days I could only crank out a couple of paragraphs.  But I kept at it.  It took about a year each time.  But those small writing moments eventually produced two books.

            Little is the new big.

            On the website Amazon.com there are over 1,000 books showing how to accomplish big things in a small amount of time.  Specifically, they instruct readers in how to carry out major tasks in ten minutes.  You can do French cooking in ten minutes, teach your child to read ten minutes at a time, improve your marriage ten minutes at a time, and tone your body in ten minutes per day.  Even if you can only carve out ten minutes a day, you can do some pretty neat things.

            Author Kristy Stevens-Young argues that for parents busy with kids, ten minutes provides just enough time to do a host of important things.[ii]   If, in between the changing of diapers, the cooking of meals, and the driving to soccer practice, you can only find ten minutes, there are some significant things you can accomplish.  Here are a few:

1. Appointments ~ Even with wait time (or a ton of questions) an appoint can be made over the phone: dentist, eye doctor, check- ups, sports physicals, carpet cleaners, kids pictures.
2. Bathroom ~ Bathroom can always use a ten minute spruce up of kind or another. Clean toilet, sweep floor, shake out rugs, replenish tissue, empty wastebasket, clean mirror and faucets or put out fresh towels.
3. Hanger Pull ~ Go through all the closets in the house and pull out all the unused hanger and take down to the laundry room.
4. Junk in the Trunk ~ Clean out your car trunk putting items where they belong ~ in the house, garage, garbage or donated
5. Magazine Sort ~ Chose which ones in the pile you really will read later, which ones should be dropped off (newer issues at gym, dr. offices etc) or recycled.
6. Pretty as a Picture ~ Dust the frames and then clean the glass on all of your art work and family photographs.

            In a recent Psychology Today author Barton Goldsmith celebrates a number of life-enhancing things you can do in ten minutes or less. Here are a few:[iii]

1. Spend a little while watching the sunset with your mate. Nothing extra is necessary. Just sit and take in the natural beauty of the sky and appreciate being able to share it with the one you love.
2. Play with a child. Most kids have short attention spans; ten minutes of quality time from a loving adult can make their day. It will also help you stay in touch with the child inside of you.
3. Visualize or imagine a positive outcome for any issue. Medical doctors recommend visualization to patients with chronic and potentially fatal illnesses. If it can help them, it can do the same for you.
4. Hang out by some water. Studies show that hospital patients who can see a natural body of water from their beds get better at a 30 percent faster rate. If you’re not near the coast or a lake, try taking a bath. Doing so is also healing.

            Little is the new big.  Even if the little is just ten minutes.

            And this got me to thinking: could ten minutes make an important spiritual difference?  Can the myriad of spiritual issues we wrestle with be dealt with ten minutes at a time?  Can the vast spiritual challenges facing the world be handled in ten minutes? 

            Yes and no. 

            Clearly the world is not going to change in ten minutes.  Obviously the deep-seated obstacles we face as individuals will not disappear in ten minutes.  To believe so is to buy into the this-product-can-resolve-any-problem-in-one-week-or-it’s-free culture.

            But could there be more to ten minutes than we might imagine?

            A recent study finds that the average American spends about ten minutes per day in religious or spiritual activities.[iv]  On the one hand, this is bad news.  It’s difficult to experience much private transformation in just ten minutes.  It’s impossible to affect world-change with only ten minutes.  But could the ten minutes which the average American is willing to devote to spiritual or religious activities be leveraged?  Could these ten minutes be part of a larger and more comprehensive plan for personal and global transformation?

            I believe so.

            Here’s my challenge: give me ten minutes a day over the next forty days and I’ll give you twelve ways God can use those minutes to significantly change you and change the world through you.  In this series we’ll maximize the spiritual potential of growth plan lived ten minutes a time.  In part 1 of this series, we’ll take ten minutes at a time to invite Jesus to impress in our hearts his vision for our lives and our world as seen in the Sermon on the Mount.  It’s a vision which encompasses people (our relationships with others), piety (our relationship with God), and possessions (our approach toward and use of money and stuff).  In parts 2-4 of this series, we’ll explore twelve habits, disciplines, or exercises by which we can participate with God’s Spirit in experiencing significant growth in each of Jesus’ three areas.  We’ll practice four spiritual disciplines which will affect our piety, four which will affect our people, and four which will affect our possessions.  Each of the twelve disciplines can be done in ten minutes or less.

            You’ll have the opportunity to try-out each ten-minute spiritual exercise for three days before moving on to the next one.  At the end of those three days I’ll introduce the next discipline.  If you really want to challenge yourself, you can keep practicing each ten-minute discipline beyond the three day introduction.  In that case, by the end of this series you’ll be devoting about two hours per day to growing in piety, people, and possessions (12 exercises at ten minutes each).  Or, as I recommend, you can just practice the single ten-minute exercise which is the focus of that day.  It’ll be up to you.

            Little is the new big.  Spend at least ten minutes each day in these exercises and you’ll experience some significant and important changes in your intimacy with God, the way you treat others, and your approach toward material possessions.  By the end of this series, your world will be changing.  And through you, the rest of the world will be as well.

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[i] Dan Heath and Chip Heath, “True Grit,” Fast Company (March, 2011), 44-46.

[ii]http://www.examiner.com/parenting-in-seattle/best-25-things-to-do-ten-minutes-or-less-what-you-can-do-10-minutes.

[iii]http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/emotional-fitness/201004/10-life-enhancing-things-you-can-do-in-ten-minutes-or-less.

[iv] *Average includes those who spend no time at all; Ted Olsen, Go Figure, Christianity Today(August 2010), p. 13; based on a report from Bureau of Labor Statistics; http://www.bls.gov/news.release/atus.t01.htm.