The Importance of Rhythms in Life

I remarked to my local pastor just the other day about how ‘on song’ his preaching was; the blend of a solid message with lots of meaning, and the important presence of his personal delivery.

It reminded me that there are all important rhythms in life that not only inspire confidence within us as we relate with our world, but these rhythms provide hope for the future as we look ahead. Rhythms give us joy as we reflect on our past achievements too.

As an illustration, take the cricket. As I watch I note one player who’s got a good rhythm and one that doesn’t. South Africa’s captain, Graeme Smith, is both in form and full of confidence; he doesn’t look like getting out. Australia’s plan to him would probably be to just keep bowling tightly to him and hope he plays a loose shot.

But look at a player like Brett Lee, on the other hand, and he’s a player out of rhythm, low on confidence, and out of luck. He’s not getting a lot wrong; he’s just not getting enough right. Yet, he’s probably only a wicket or two, or an innings or two away from a change in fortunes. Class always sees a return to form.

Gaining and retaining or regaining rhythm is a fickle business. This reminds us that we need faith, because we can’t possibly explain 100 percent why or why not we have our rhythm.

There are hourly, daily, weekly, monthly and even annual rhythms. There are little things and big things. When we have a regular outing with friends on a Wednesday morning planned or a weekend ride to look forward to, we have a buoyancy about us, and this echoes into the other areas of our life.

The most important rhythms however are the minute-by-minute and second-by-second rhythms as they highlight how our thinking is going. They enunciate the rhythm of the mind, our most powerful ally. Controlling our thinking is a grossly understated achievement.

Life is basically about learning--it’s the most important objective.

Learning about our personal rhythms can both be fun and frustrating; but, we can’t avoid it so we might as well enjoy it the best we can.

Copyright © 2008, S. J. Wickham. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.