Meditation: Rule of Recentering
by Dr. Billy Strother
It has been a 40-year journey. For 40 years now, I have had the honor and privilege to serve the Lord as leader in ministry: preacher, professor, writer, speaker. But none of this would have happened without the many gracious persons who voluntarily open their hearts to listen to my words, spoken or written. When people choose to listen, or even follow us, they are giving their hearts, not just their ears.
As leaders, with that gift of giving us a hearing, comes a responsibility: to prepare not just our hearts, but to prepare our souls through the spiritual discipline of meditation time with the Lord. Meditation differs from prayer. Prayer is more a time of conversation with Jesus where we do most of the talking—as lyrics to the song clarifies—“Just a little talk with Jesus.”
In 2022, I had come to the point where walking became a painful chore with every step—walking to classes, walking into churches, moving around conferences. It took six months and a total ankle replacement, then a cervical spine surgery, to get me walking acceptably. I had to choose between surgeries or permanently reside in a wheelchair. After the ankle replacement, there came the required six weeks with my leg propped up, staring at a ceiling. While the ankle pain was gone, my ability to walk safely did not return. Then came the discovery of spinal cord compression and damage, also interfering with my inability to walk, and then a difficult cervical spine surgery. Now, I walk more safely but not fast. I am grateful for what ability to walk I do now possess, rather than being confined to a wheelchair.
What the weeks of recovery made me do was to slow down. Like, perhaps, you and many other leaders, slowing down is just not in our nature—we are just too busy to slow down. The surgeries turned out to be one of the most important spiritual opportunities for me.
My whole life is talking about God and his Word and loving on people. But in those weeks of recovery, I came to discover a radical and shameful truth: “I talk so much and so often about God, I have no time to listen to him.” I was so busy saying “yes” to every professional responsibility—teaching, speaking, preaching, writing, all good things—there was reserved in my schedule no time for anything other than talking, and not an acceptable period for meditating to hear Jesus’ voice. Sure, there was always time for some prayer ... mostly me talking to the Lord, asking for help for me or someone I love. But my life could be summed up this way: “I speak so loudly and frequently about Jesus, that there was no room for Jesus to talk with me.” I could not hear his voice, because I did not give my mouth a recess.
In that recovery period, I came to that convicting truth. How did I get there? Good intentions, saying “yes” to every good thing we as spiritual leaders are asked to do. Saying “yes” to everything is one of the biggest struggles for Christian leaders.
During that final recovery period at the end of 2022, I came upon a leadership principle called “The Rule of Recentering.” I embraced it and began the practice. Now the “Rule of Recentering” has become a staple of my teaching of volunteer and vocational Christian leaders. Its practice has reshaped my life in a way that prioritizes the spiritual discipline of meditation: listening for the voice of and communing (fellowshipping) one-on-one with Jesus.
When we embrace the spiritual discipline of meditation, we set aside time not only to detach from the tyranny of the urgent, text messages, emails, phone calls and the internet, but we create the opportunity to attach ourselves in some time only with Jesus. There is no one set formula, posture, place, tools, or time for meditation. We are all different. But spiritual meditation will be pushed out of our schedule if we do not prioritize that time. It was the Rule of Recentering which gave me permission to say “no” to some good things, allowing me to prioritize time for fellowshipping alone with Jesus.
Definition: To “recenter” is to wrestle with one’s thoughts and emotions to become centered again, resulting in both an intelligent and a passionate restructuring of the self-expenditure of limited personal capital in professional, spiritual, and relational pursuits.
Practice: So how do we recenter? We recenter with pen and paper! (We remember things more readily when written by our own hand.)
List all of the professional and religious responsibilities in which you are engaged or to which you are time-committed.
List the primary relationships you value.
Prioritize, by number, both lists separately. (Yes, number them, number one being the most important to you. Include time for meditation on one of your lists.)
Knowing we each only have so many hours in a day or week, delete the lesser professional activities and religious responsibilities distracting you from moving toward your primary goals or which detract from time available to invest in your most important primary relationships. Now you have permission to say “no” to some good things that are in the bottom half of your list, so that you can give your best attention to your priorities.
Now, combine both lists and reprioritize by number, again deleting good things at the bottom, so you have time to give your best to your highest priorities.
Now you have “recentered” and you will be living out your priorities. Recentering may cost you some things, but the gain in peace, joy, and quality of relationships (especially the one with Jesus) will amplify.
Recentering gave me permission to say “no” to some lesser good things, to make room for my alone time with Jesus, to increase the quality of my most important relationships, and to invest myself in Kingdom pursuits which, hopefully, produce the most fruit.
I so often have had to learn lessons the hard way. I hope you do not have to go through two major surgeries in 6 months to learn to prioritize and practice the spiritual disciple of meditation through recentering.