The Power of Living a Deep Life

Today, I took a walk by myself.

It wasn’t very quick, it was just to get the mail, but I deliberately turned off my phone and said to myself, “Self, we’re going to solve that problem we’ve been thinking about.” The problem isn’t important to the story. What’s important is that during my walk, I was able to solve that problem.

I used a technique I learned in Deep Work by Cal Newport. It’s a good habit to focus your mind on a problem when doing something like driving or better yet, walking. You commit to thinking through a problem and gently correct yourself if you go off track or end up repeating the same thing over and over again (a brain loop).

Cal Newport uses the word “deep” to describe actions and situations that require focus and energy. He is intentional about confronting the things in his life that aren’t important and that take up most of his time. To live the deep life, you increase focus on the important things and look for the unimportant time-suckers in your life so you can get rid of them.

When I live a deeper life, I find my prayer life deepens with it. This makes sense, as Christ calls us “into the deep”. He calls us to leave behind the spiritually unimportant and focus our energy on knowing Him. He wants us to figure out what’s important so we can focus on it and figure out what’s unimportant so we can get rid of it.

Put out into deep water and let your nets down for a catch.

Luke 5:4

“But Patrick, the Gospel isn’t a productivity self-help book!” Yes, I know that. But God still doesn’t want us doing anything unimportant. He doesn’t want us to binge The Office or scroll social media endlessly, because it’s only in the deep water where our efforts pay off.

The deep life is lived in silence. God is also found in silence. If we strive to live a deep life, we will find God. Not only that, we’ll be able to “pray always” like we’re called to. My walk, even though I wasn’t explicitly thinking about God, was a conversation with Him. I felt Him there guiding my thoughts.

I don’t feel Him guiding my thoughts when I’m scrolling through TikTok.