Get in The Zone and Stay There
We have all heard this a thousand times "Dude! You Were In THE ZONE!"... especially regarding people who are performers. We have seen incredible performances in sports or music where someone literally does the impossible. Sometimes this happens for an extended period of time in an event. A single game where some amazing records are set. A musical performance that could never be duplicated. Maybe it is an inventor who describes a new process in the course of an afternoon that revolutionizes an industry. It could apply to a business person who comes up with a simple system that creates amazing growth in revenue.
This particular mental state is quite often referred to as BEING IN THE ZONE.
Everybody knows that Being In The Zone is where you want to be. Amazing things happen in The Zone. There is no wasted motion in The Zone. There is a calmness and clarity of thought in The Zone.
The Zone is a state of being where everything seems easy and things fall into place.
Y'all know I am a golfer and I have spent years playing competitive golf. There have been only a few hours in my entire career of Being In The Zone. I can particularly remember playing in a tournament when I tied for my lowest round score (4 under par... I have done it a few times). In this round I can distinctly remember being in The Zone with the putter. Starting at number 12 I had 5 straight 1-putt greens..... I was in the zone. I distinctly remember that on the 17th hole I had short sided my approach to the green and had an impossible up and down. I knew to simply get it on the green somewhere and take it from there. I actually hit a quite fortunate "bump and run" that trickled through the junk and got up there about 12 feet from the hole. As I lined up the putt for my 6th straight 1-putt I vividly remember thinking "I have made them all day.... I am probably going to make this one too" and I let the stroke flow and sure enough hit it perfectly and enjoyed watching that little ball roll right into the middle of the hole with perfect speed..
This was an example of being in The Zone. I knew I was in The Zone and I just had to simply enjoy being in The Zone.
The same thing happens in music for me and typically it happens more often I think because music is easier for me or at the minimum far less mechanical. I just play the guitar and I rarely if ever think about it and somtimes I get some truly remarkable recorded sounds that I sit back and laugh about thinking "I would never be able to do that ever again if I tried it 10,000 times!"
This is what it's like to be in The Zone. For performers at the highest level, achieving the zone happens more often, lasts longer and achieves a higher level of what can be accomplished because of the combination of extreme talent and dedication to preparation. As Lee Trevino once said "the more I practice.... the luckier I get!"
A common understanding of human endeavor is that getting in The Zone is rare and cannot be manufactured...... You cannot flip a switch and get in The Zone. You cannot decide the get in The Zone in a sports or other performance endeavor. What you can do is prepare yourself as best as you can for the activity that you want to be in The Zone for. You can expect to be in the zone when you learn to expect it and what it means. In this way it is possible to experience being in The Zone more often.
How can this apply to our walk of faith? Wouldn't it be great to be in The Zone spiritually? Maybe you have experienced this. I know that I have experienced being in The Zone spiritually where I could in fact feel the forces of the universe aligning and confirming that I was in fact experiencing God allowing me to be in the center of the work that He created me to do.
Just like sports and music, I have experienced being in The Zone spiritually a few times..... very infrequently and just as rare as any other Zone experience. It felt exactly the same except for the feeling and knowledge that God was with me allowing me to experience The Zone in my faith walk.
Contrast this to Jesus' walk on this earth. Jesus was literally in The Zone the entire time he walked on this earth. "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever" ~ Hebrews 13:8
This scripture proclaims that if Jesus ever was in The Zone spiritually, he was and is ALWAYS in The Zone!
What Christian person would not want to be in The Zone from a spiritual standpoint? We all want to be in The Zone and we also rarely find ourselves there.
What does it mean to be in The Zone from a spiritual standpoint? Why are we so rarely there when Jesus stayed in The Zone?
I think that being in The Zone spiritually means that we always know that God is with us. We constantly know that God is at work in all circumstances to bring about us doing the work that he created for us to do. It can mean understanding that there are no missed details of our lives. We might imagine that every moment is important and all events are a part of His plan.
While we know that there are many distractions, it is possible to be in The Zone spiritually every conscious moment and we are in fact called to be this.
Paul leads the way to achieving The Zone from a spiritual standpoint in 2 Corinthians 10:5 where he states that "we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ"
Learning how to train to be a Christ Follower is the pathway to finding The Zone spiritually. Strengthening yourself in the knowledge of God will allow you to experience it more often just like a finely tuned athlete in his prime in the big game.
Having every conscious thought purified by Christ as a moment by moment way of living places a person in The Zone from a spiritual standpoint. This does make it possible to enter The Zone like flipping a switch. A conscious decision to take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ puts you in The Zone by it's very definition and therefore can be entered every single day and who knows how many moments of every day can a believer stay there.
My prayer for you and for me is all of them.... every moment in The Zone for the Glory of God.
It means an end to wasted motion. It means an end to fruitless endeavors. It means immediately stepping into our calling and staying there because God wastes no time and the work to be done is vast.
I want to be in The Zone spiritually and I believe that it is easier than any other In The Zone experience to achieve because God wants us to be there and empowers us to live there and is the energy that allows it to be.