I have been fasting some this week, and I find that a little hunger makes me more mindful and alert. I am finding the value of the old dude’s recommendation in the little Og Mandino book, The Greatest Salesman in the World – keep an empty stomach and a full mind.

But even with a full mind, I can miss out on being mindful. Ironically, and a bit embarrassingly, my first daily times of being fully present and mindful were in my toilet time each morning. In those moments, I knew I was exactly where I needed to be! I was tuned in to my body and to God’s presence there with me. Evidently, He doesn’t mind stinky! 🙂

Sitting there, I could set aside my lifelong fear of missing out on God’s best. Growing up, no matter what I was doing, I was always thinking about something else, worried I was missing out. If I was playing with friends, I supposed I should be studying, and if I was studying, I wished to be playing with friends.

But now, things are changing. I am learning to surrender, and mindfulness is growing as I trust God to do His work in me and release my need for certainty and control.

As I learn it is not up to me to figure things out, but to be open and obedient, things are better. I am leaning in to the truth in the old hymn I learned as a child. “Trust and obey, trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, than to trust and obey.”

When we walk with the Lord
In the light of His Word,
What a glory He sheds on our way;
While we do His good will,
He abides with us still,
And with all who will trust and obey.

Not a shadow can rise,
Not a cloud in the skies,
But His smile quickly drives it away;
Not a doubt or a fear,
Not a sigh or a tear,
Can abide while we trust and obey.

Not a burden we bear,
Not a sorrow we share,
But our toil He doth richly repay;
Not a grief or a loss,
Not a frown or a cross,
But is blest if we trust and obey.

But we never can prove
The delights of His love,
Until all on the altar we lay;
For the favor He shows,
And the joy He bestows,
Are for them who will trust and obey.

Then in fellowship sweet
We will sit at His feet,
Or we’ll walk by His side in the way;
What He says we will do;
Where He sends, we will go,
Never fear, only trust and obey.

Trust and obey,
For there’s no other way
To be happy in Jesus,
But to trust and obey.

This indeed is mindfulness, to operate out of a childlike trust and simply do what it occurs to us in that deep, sweet center of peace.