Guest Post: Greg Richardson of Strategic Monk

I was not born contemplative.

I was taught from an early age that it is more valuable to know things than to listen.

Knowing is much more fun than listening. Listening requires patience, practice, and being open to new insights. Listening means that you reflect on new things and make mistakes, which just reinforces that you do not know the right answer.

You do not do well in school by listening, you do well by knowing the right answers.

The great thing about knowing the answer is that you have successfully completed listening. You do not not need to be open to new insights if you already know the answers.

For a long time, my faith was based on the same understanding. I had the right answers, and my mental energies went into defending those answers rather than being open to new understanding. I was committed to the accuracy of my perspective, and beginning to feel stuck because the need to be right is so demanding.

Eventually, I came to a place where having the right answers failed me. Knowing was not enough.

I came to see that knowing the right answers was skimming along the surface. I was seeking something deeper.

Slowly, contemplation drew me. I became a beginner.

Contemplation has opened my eyes to the spiritual ocean, with its infinite depths to explore.

I continue to be drawn more deeply into contemplative life, and reflect on ways to be contemplative in today’s world.

Contemplation has turned my understanding of my own faith upside down. My connection to the holy is no longer about getting a good grade, no longer about being right.

Spirituality is not about being right, or about following rules. Spirituality is about relationship; it is about being open and listening to the sacred that is always with us.

Photo Credit: Too Far North


Guest Post: Greg Richardson is the Strategic Monk, a leadership and organizational coach, and spiritual mentor, in Pasadena, California. "My life is a journey, and I help people find their way. I have been a criminal prosecutor and taught at  university; now I am a lay person connected to a Benedictine monastery." You can get to know Greg better at Strategic Monk, or on Twitter.