Mindful Devotions: a 40-Day Journey Through the Bible

Both authors have seen clearly, through their personal practice and investigation of mindfulness, that mindfulness is a mission gift to the church - and this is a gentle introduction to mindful spirituality

Mindful Devotions: a 40-Day Journey Through the Bible
By Chris Edmondson and Karen Openshaw 
Fresh Expressions
ISBN: 979-8361652129
Reviewed by Shaun Lambert

Mindful Devotions: a 40-Day Journey Through the Bible should be read in conjunction with the authors’ other book Mindfulness as Mission Gift. Christian mindfulness which is always mindfulness of God, is at heart about wisdom, and what the early contemplatives called diorasis – the cultivation of a clear seeing.
 
Both authors have seen clearly, through their personal practice and investigation of mindfulness, that mindfulness is a mission gift to the church, through evangelism, fresh expressions of church and community, as well as mindful spirituality. Their latest book Mindful Devotions is a gentle introduction to mindful spirituality.
 
Mindful spirituality is incarnational, helping us to inhabit our bodies, emotions, imagination, and mind. A mindful spirituality pays attention to scripture and opens awareness to the work of the Holy Spirit. This is held together in the central practice of this book, lectio divina or meditation on scripture.
 
The writers draw on enough of the wisdom of secular mindfulness to ensure there is a bridge to the spiritual seeker, who is asking spiritual questions after practising mindfulness for health. However, it can also be put in the hands of any Christian looking to deepen their spiritual journey.

Mindfulness as attention and awareness is a God-given capacity whose purpose is to enable us to pay attention to God, our own self, others and the world. Through the work of the Holy Spirit this becomes graced attention.
 
Mindfulness as attention and awareness does not belong to Buddhism or secular psychology, as a cursory glance at the history of attention shows. It has been part of different disciplines including, education, philosophy and poetry. It is also part of the history of Christianity in spiritual theology and contemplation. Apparently a key verse in historical sermons has been 1 Corinthians 7:35, ‘attend upon the Lord without distraction.’

Here we have attention cultivated as a virtue. We need its resurrection in today’s age of distraction.

Shaun Lambert is a Baptist minister and completed a PhD last year at the London School of Theology examining mindfulness of God