Discipline of Reflection

By Gabriel Odhiambo Achayo

I believe life is worthwhile living on reflection.

“An unexamined life is not worth living,” said Plato. This is true and the only way to examine your life is to take time to reflect on your actions and past. Your past indeed can’t dictate your future but it plays a huge role in who you turn out to be depending on how you look at it. You are a product of your past; nature, choices, and nurture, be they good or bad. Taking time to reflect on your past helps you to access what God has been doing in your life and package it for the benefit your future and others. Looking backward helps you see clearly the WHY. We understand life backward but live it forward. You are able to appreciate the place of God, others, and experiences in your past. When you reflect you are able to identify if God is in any situation, what is he doing? How do you respond? And what lessons if any do you come out with. This helps you become more intentional as you live your lives forward.

God develops people over a lifetime according to some discernible patterns. God uses individual formation experiences to shape our character and prepare us for useful service. These experiences usually happening early in our lives are to get us ready for bigger responsibilities in later in life. You are yet to engage in your biggest assignment. The only way to do that is to be able to reflect on what has been happening, find the pattern and what they have all been preparing you for.

Some key questions to ask yourself are: Who am I? This is not what you do, your title neither is it your daily responsibilities that define you. It’s the real who you are that guides how you do what you do as you carry out your daily responsibilities e.g. being a parent, an employee, a sibling etc. The other question is where am I from? Our place of birth and growth might have something to do with this. But for this case, it's all about what you have gone through. What are some of those experiences that have brought you up to this point? What are some of the major life turning points that define you now? What has life taken you through? There are things that have happened to you and things that have been done by you? The other question is, Why are you where you are? Why are you at your current stage of life? For such a time as this, why are you engaged in what you are engaged in? Own where you are right now. The other question is Where are you going? Think about where you want to go. Looking ahead one month or 10yrs, where do you see yourself? This is in your attitude, relationships, title, money, responsibilities, spiritually, mentally, physically and any other area of interest to you.

 A genuine commitment to interrogate and reflect on these question would be key in helping you do the following: Identify if God has been at work in your life, interpret what God is trying to do, think through how to engage (respond), and imprint universal principle(s) you have learnt from life. These principles become helpful to your future and others.

Having a discipline of reflection is a very intentional way of living our lives. Sometimes we make a mistake of relying too much on previous experiences, what people know or what we already know and not taking the time to really focus on what is going on now as we reflect. This is sometimes misleading and you lose out on what God could be doing at the moment in your life. Even if you are really certain, it’s more rewarding to always be open to a possibility for something new, fresh and different.

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Whatever it is that you have gone through, you need to package it for the benefit of your future and others. Don't let your experiences and past go to waste. Learn from it and move forward a better person.

If this resonates with you, develop a discipline of reflection, and journaling. Start now… Then look for a small community of friends who you can do this together with… Being accountable to a few and practicing with a few. It’s about building a community of friends to share each other’s reflections.  You have to be deeply committed to each other and desire to see each other grow in this journey. You have to create a support, encouragement and accountability platform for each other. The community has to be a small as possible so that there is active engagement by all involved.

Find a community around you and see if these conversations make sense to you…