NICK WRIGHT
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Learning to live

10/2/2012

9 Comments

 
​It’s funny how a tasty bag of fish and chips can feel so desperately appealing when you’re trying to lose weight. There’s something about deprivation, about delayed gratification, that can intensify awareness and desire. Everyday things that were hardly noticed before, that were taken for granted in the midst of other distractions can become a focus of attention, of need, of longing.

It’s about breaking away from the ordinary, about disrupting routine experiences or patterns of behaviour in order to see, feel and experience them in a fresh light. It’s about learning to experience and appreciate familiar things anew, to encounter them again as if for the first time. It’s like learning to see and experience the world through the curious, excited eyes of a child.

I’m aware of how much of my life I spend on auto-pilot. It’s a normal and necessary psychological state that enables me to focus and to avoid sensory overload. At the same time, I risk becoming dulled to the world around me, to other people, to myself and to God. Perhaps this is why some resort to fasting-as-deprivation or extreme sports to feel the rush, to feel really alive again.

Sometimes it’s a surprise, a crisis, that jolts and awakes us. Sometimes it’s a startling insight that catches us unawares. It’s something or someone that shakes our cage, shifts our perspective, sometimes gradually and sometimes dramatically. It could be an unexpected opportunity or challenge, a change in circumstances that shifts the gestalt background into sharp foreground.

I was once sitting in a church service, bored to tears. I sat by a window and, as I gazed through it, I noticed a daddy long legs insect on the glass. I day dreamed of being kidnapped and held captive on an alien planet with no other earthly contact. I imagined how I would feel if I then found that insect, that fellow earth creature in my cell with me – how amazing and precious it would be.

It sounds random and bizarre but it felt like a moment of insight, a revelation from God, that really sparked my imagination. It reminded me of a friend whose young sister became terminally ill. In the midst of such tragic circumstances, the friend commented how, paradoxically, she had never seen her sister so alive. In facing imminent death, her sister was able to deeply value life.

Is this something that Jesus meant when he commented, ‘unless a seed falls to the ground and dies...’ or ‘unless you change and become like little children...’ and Paul, ‘what you sow does not come to life unless it dies’? They were talking about a mysterious way to know and experience eternal spiritual life, a vibrant quality of life that casts ordinary human experience into dark shadow.

I feel inspired to seek God more, to open myself more to his profound revelation, to walk more closely on the path he calls me to. I feel challenged to open my eyes, in Jesus’ words to ‘keep awake’, to notice the unnoticed, to value the unvalued and to be more thankful. And next time I eat a bag of tasty fish and chips, I will pause to savour, enjoy and appreciate every mouthful.
9 Comments
Wiggleping
11/2/2012 03:59:44 am

A wonderful piece - inspiring & awakening

Reply
Fran Beckett
14/2/2012 03:33:26 am

Hi Nick

I enjoyed your reflections on "Learning to Live". Hope all is good with you, and that you're enjoying life in Milton Keynes, World Vision, etc...
Grace and peace, Fran

Reply
Nick Wright
20/3/2012 11:51:44 am

Thanks Fran - good to hear from you too! With blessings. Nick

Reply
Bridget
14/2/2012 10:42:12 am

Another really inspiring blog. I find giving up food, especially tasty food, very difficult! In fact, I find giving up anything I want difficult!
I heard an amazing sermon last Sunday. All about us pressing into God, living an extraordinary life as we choose to follow Him ever more closely. Is this what you mean by breaking away from the ordinary?
Focussing on what we are giving up can quickly get us very miserable.. Focussing on what we will gain though, the sweet presence of the Holy Spirit, the sense that we are partnering with God in doing something meaningful and worthwhile. Now, you are talking. This is the pearl of great price which is worth giving anything up for.

Your blog reminded me of another of my favourite authors, John Eldredge, and how he describes giving up having a drink in the evenings, as he felt that it was becoming too important to him, “And so something I’ve enjoyed over the years is gone now. And I have no idea if or when it will return. What I notice is a kind of spaciousness now in my soul in the evening. Room for God.”


Reply
Nick Wright
20/3/2012 11:53:45 am

Thanks, Bridget. Your comments made me wonder: perhaps it's sometimes easier to think in terms of 'taking up' than 'giving up'? Nick

Reply
CM
16/2/2012 05:34:12 am

Beautifully written Nick and beautifully said Bridget!

I gave up my husband and my sonn literally... I told the Lord it was okay. I told my husband and son it was okay. Sometimes I hate myself for doing so, sometimes I thank myself for doing so. If my husband and son would still be alive today I'd never know the Father like I know Him now. But I miss them terribly! So bad that I can't focus on anything some days. On the other hand, I don't have them around to absorb all the Father's time either. Now I have the Lord to focus on. To trust for solutions, as where I first had my husband take care of things.

I realise that its true, you don't know what you've got until you lost it... People tend to idolise nice things in our lives. Tend to adore the creation above its Creator. I learned an impotant lesson. You'll find that you take one thing for granted as soon as other things are more important. Check your life on a monthly basis and see what has decreased in priority. If you do this, the huge damage hasn't been done as yet. Not in your personal or business life but neither in your spiritual life!

Therefor I'd set up a weekly schedule: Monday eve, family altar which is for the Lord, a family time of worship and reading, Tuesday eve family bible study to equip our spiritual lives, Friday eve, famiy night, all the mattrasses come down and we enjoy good movies and lots of crips together, Saturdays are our happy day outs, every child its own saturday to choose what we're going to do that particular day and sundays obviously the Father and fellowship! I have been doing the happy day outs for the last 15yrs and realise the the most fond memories the kids have has to do with those days!

Reply
Nick Wright
20/3/2012 12:01:48 pm

Thanks for sharing your experiences and insights, CM. You have been through some very tough challenges in life and it's inspiring to hear how you've managed to draw such positives from them. I love the idea of getting the mattresses down and enjoying good movies and lots of crisps together! God's blessing and peace to you and your family. Nick

Reply
Antonio R.
19/3/2012 02:32:37 pm

Hi Nick,
I stop by trough one comment you dropped on LinkedIn. After reading your post Nick, I just want to say that everybody should be on the same pathway of life as you are.
It took me almost 35 years to slow down and learn how important is to value the small things we all have in life and those things have no price, because they are all free. Living in an auto-pilot system make us loose the best things in life. We all have to get back to live and we all can learn how to live in a peaceful pace breaking away routines that just don´t allow us to see the beauty of life, the sparkling on a smile, on a pice of icecream, on seashore, on a garden, on a bird singing...

Reply
Nick Wright
20/3/2012 11:57:46 am

Thanks Antonio. Yes, it's a lesson I'm learning every day. I find it difficult to stay in the moment as an on-going way of being, to be really present to the moment, and not to get distracted by the past, the future or other preoccupations. It feels like an on-going journey of learning, discipline and discovery. With blessings. Nick

Reply



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    ​Nick Wright

    ​I'm a psychological coach, trainer and OD consultant. Curious to discover how can I help you? ​Get in touch!

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