The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Babylon (8)
The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect peace, because he trusts in You. Isaiah 26:3 NASB
Steadfast of – סָמַך (sāmak) lean upon, lay, put, uphold, support[1] “Steadfast.” The mind that leans upon God. But let’s be clear. That’s not quite the same as believing in God. In this verse, “steadfast of” is a verb. The emphasis isn’t on “mind.” It’s on the action of leaning. And in this verse, that action is a passive participle, that is, a continuous reflexive engaging with God. We would call this meditation. Bringing God to mind in every possible circumstance. Oh, my. So much harder than “believing in” God. So much gets in the way.
“Although we are well aware of the psycho-spiritual costs of lacking time for reflection, we seem unable to weaken our resistance to busyness. . . ‘leisure’ has come to mean how one stays busy when the necessary labors of making a living do not fill one’s entire available time. . . we have invented a myriad of activities and diversions to which we can devote all of the time we have free from labor.”[2]
Perhaps the greatest impediment to growth is distraction. I didn’t say “spiritual growth,” although that might have been expected. I deliberately used the general term “growth” because distraction affects all of our embodied existence. We fail to reach our utmost potential because too often we follow life’s rabbit trails. And there are plenty of them. The yetzer ha’ra is an absolute expert in detours. If you reflect on any of the goals you have entertained in life, you will soon discover the number of times you had to reroute to reach the objective. The power of the yetzer ha’ra is not to persuade you to deliberately choose evil. It is only to prevent you from doing the good by diverting your efforts into something not quite as good. Few people choose a course of purposeful disobedience. Most simply choose whatever course comes next.
What is the solution to this perennial problem? I could tell you to concentrate. I could exhort you to work harder. I could provide you with motivational incentives. But I am sure you’ve heard them all before. Didn’t work, did they? Oh, the desire was there, but as Yeshua said, “The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.” Maybe you should take a moment to read the beginning of that famous verse. It goes like this: “Watch and pray that you don’t enter into temptation” (Matthew 26:41). Be steadfast of mind. We know what happened. They slept. How can we overcome the temptation to be distracted, even by sleep?
Can I suggest another approach? Mindfulness. Mindfulness is working backwards. This is something you can do, in fact, only you can do. In the words of Hillel, “If I am not for myself, who will be for me?’ (Ab. 1:14).”[3] What is mindfulness (watchfulness) working backwards?
“Watchfulness is being mindful of oneself and one’s relation to others at every moment. This is a necessary prerequisite to the practice of Mussar, whose goal is to become aware of the feelings, actions, and thoughts that constitute a person’s psyche. A person begins by developing this awareness after an event, then learns to do so closer and closer to the event, and eventually during the event itself or even before. One who develops awareness during or before an event has conquered the skill of watchfulness . . .”[4]
Start where you are—messed up. Think of the step just before you arrived at this place. Consider it. Watch for it. Become aware of the feelings, the circumstances, the small decisions that happened just before the messed-up disaster. And the next time those feelings and circumstances show up (and they will), stop and ask yourself what happened just before that. Then practice the same backwards meditation until one day you reach that place where it all began, where the first inkling of choice launched you onto the path that eventually pushed you over the cliff. That’s mindfulness. That’s backwards meditation.
Try it and see what happens.
Step 8: Meditate backwards.
Topical Index: sāmak, to lean upon, mediate, mindfulness, watchfulness, Isaiah 26:3
[1] Patterson, R. D. (1999). 1514 סָמַך. R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 628). Chicago: Moody Press.
[2] Ira F. Stone, in Moses Hayyim Luzzatto, Mesillat Yesharim: The Path of the Upright, p. 37.
[3] Cited in Moses Hayyim Luzzatto, Mesillat Yesharim: The Path of the Upright, p. 38.
[4] Ira F. Stone, in Moses Hayyim Luzzatto, Mesillat Yesharim: The Path of the Upright, p. 36.
