The art and discipline of thinking deeply

The ability to think deeply is both a skill and a gift. It is also a discipline that is often given short shrift in our information packed, media dominated and frenetically paced world. Most people simply do not have time to think deeply. It is easier to be busy and distracted than deliberative and thoughtful.

The deepest thinking is obviously about God and His word: witness the number of times in the Psalms that David speaks of meditating on the Word. It is almost novel today for people to read through the Bible and yet it is the source of our most profound understanding of ourselves, God, life and what it means to be a follower of Jesus. When life crowds this out we have lost our most valuable source.

Or take the priorities of our lives: work, marriage, finances, time management, relationships and even physical health. The business of life leads to an autopilot existence where we fall into deep ruts without even thinking about it. And that is the problem: we are not taking the time to think deeply, consider carefully and prayerfully evaluate our lives. One day we wake up and think, "how did I get here or allow that to happen?"

It is the lack of careful consideration of our lives that causes the regrets we have in later life. One of my goals is to minimize the regrets because we cannot do life or relationships over. I am sure that many couples who have drifted apart in their marriage realize that there were things that could have prevented the drift had they taken the time to become aware and do something about it. In too many cases we put a lot of thinking into our careers and work to the neglect of other priorities in life which then suffer as a consequence.

We often feel we are too busy to take time to sit still, take that walk, spend time with God or sit in a peaceful place to think. In truth we would be far happier and more productive if we did. It is then that we can gain a needed perspective on our lives, relationships, marriages, work and the many things that are core to our existence. Time to think is never wasted time. Activity that drives out that time is wasted time.

Posted on Sabbatical (time to think)

Thinking deeply on the things that truly matter

People of deep influence are deep thinkers. Surface thinking is one of the scourges of our time. Shallow thinking leads to shallow solutions and shallow results. Deep influence itself is a result of taking the time to deal with the issues of our inner lives, our relationship with God, our EQ, our shadow side and many other internal disciplines and issues. None of this is possible without the deepest of thinking.

The book of proverbs speaks of “mining” the things of God. That mining is done primarily in the inner recesses of our lives. Henry Nouwen wrote that we don’t like to be silent and still because we are then confronted with the scaffolding of our lives, some of which we don’t like, some of which we abhor. Yet, without taking the time to be still and silent we miss out on the ability to search deep things in our lives and in our ministries. There is a reason that the Lord says through Isaiah, “Be still and know that I am God.” It is in that stillness that we are confronted with His full majesty!

The thinking of people of influence is born out of the practice, habit and discipline of extended periods of thinking. Our frenetic schedules and propensity to activity are the main enemies of deep thinking. As it robs us of time to think it also robs us of our influence.

This is why I block off major portions of my year for writing and thinking. For me, writing often clarifies my thinking so that is a discipline that is critical for me to maintain. I encourage pastors to develop a preaching team so that they can take time off from the weekly grind of preparation to stop and think deeply about their lives and ministries. If time to think, ponder, and meditate deeply is important to us, then our schedules should reflect that discipline. And think time should not be the first to go when things press into our schedules.

Equally important is time for deep dialogue with other leaders. It is not unusual for me to take 24 hours to be with another leader whom I respect and trust and to share our lives and talk through situations we face. This is thinking multiplied as two deep thinkers sharpen and challenge one another!

Truly deep thinkers are hard to find but when one does, they are a treasure to be nurtured and a friendship to be cultivated. For me, one of these is my brother Tom who is one of the most insightful people I know. He is a contrarian thinker and a deep thinker. He asks probing questions and has a humble demeanor. He is as others have said to me, “without guile.” Tom and I regularly try to find time together and both of us leave better for it.

Because I work in the international arena, I rub shoulders with some amazing movement leaders from around the globe. Usually I meet with national leaders in a group setting. But there are some unusually deep thinkers among them that I will schedule full days with, sometimes multiple days. In our mutual dialogue, sharing of life and ministry I come away with insights that cannot be had any other way. Hopefully I leave something of value behind as well. There is a multiplication factor of critical thinking when deep thinkers spend time together.

One of my former colleagues, Steve, actually has a band of five brothers who meet together on an annual basis, and have done so since seminary days. They have a pact to be transparent and honest and they are able to speak into each other’s personal lives, marriages, hearts and ministries. They have developed a powerful bond with one another that helps them think more deeply and live more intentionally.