How do you stay grounded? I just conducted a Google search on “staying grounded” that returned over 4.7 million results. I suspect the phrase means wildly different things to different people, depending on the context.
For me, being grounded refers to first knowing who I am at my core – knowing what is most important to me – and then doing things that reinforce that foundation. It is that second part of reinforcing that helps remind me of the knowing.
In one of my earliest lessons learned this year, I shared my framework for each day – the three words “ground,” stretch,” and “reflect.” The idea is to begin each day grounded in who I am, stretch myself to excel beyond what is needed just to get by, and then reflect on the day’s experience by capturing a lesson learned for this blog.
While taking a week off work this week to stay home and read and write, I thought it was time for more intentional grounding. To that end, several hours per day this week are devoted to reading various books of the Bible along with the study notes accompanying them in the ESV Study Bible. If I consider my Christian faith to be the most important grounding aspect of my life, then it’s important that I spend some extended time – not just occasional, brief moments – in that which defines what it means to be Christian.
Last night I just finished reading the Gospel of Luke. For the Christian, nothing grounds one more than being reminded of the full account of the life, death and resurrection of Christ as told by eyewitnesses and others from that day. It has a way of cutting through the extraneous frill that so easily clutters our lives, and it drives home the basics of who we are, who God is, and what He has done for us that we could not do for ourselves. It challenges us to put aside distractions that take us away from our life’s purpose.
I don’t know what you consider your core foundation or grounding to be, but whatever it is, I hope you take the time to regularly reinforce it.
Leap year lesson #254 is Stay grounded.