Questions and Answers
How Can You Align Your Spiritual Rhythm with Jesus Christ Instead of the World?
Aligning ourselves with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ can give us greater power and strength than turning to other sources.
When I was younger, the idea of jet lag was always weird to me. Having never traveled far, I didn’t understand why my friends complained that they couldn’t sleep after a trip in a different time zone. If the sun was down, couldn’t they just go to bed?
And then I experienced jet lag for the first time and realized that our bodies really are delicate. It can take time to readjust sleep schedules when they are interrupted.
Thinking about this reminded me of the mimosa pudica flower. In 1729 a French geophysicist discovered that during the day, this plant’s leaves would pop open, and when the sun set, the leaves would droop.
This still happened even when the plant was immersed in total darkness with no access to the sun—a process that helped physicists in the future understand the concept of internal clocks.1
Humans are a lot like this flower. A person’s internal clock, also known as their circadian rhythm, syncs almost perfectly with a 24-hour day—but the sun keeps it exactly on track. If we couldn’t see the sun, we would eventually fall out of sync with its cycle of rising and setting.
Learning about the importance of aligning my circadian rhythm with the sun helped me shift my mind to the importance of aligning ourselves with another kind of sun—the Son of God.
Our Spiritual Circadian Rhythm
God placed within us the Light of Christ, which I like to think of as my “spiritual circadian rhythm.” The Light of Christ gives us the ability to discern right from wrong. But God also knew that darkness and confusion from the world could confuse our spiritual circadian rhythms. Because of this, He gave us a source of pure, eternal light that we could always count on to guide our way through the confusion of the world: Jesus Christ Himself.
Just like the sun helps our circadian rhythms to align with a 24-hour day, when we turn to Jesus Christ, He can help us realign our spiritual rhythms so that we can be in sync with Him and Heavenly Father each day.
When we are aligned with Them, we stay on the covenant path, we love those around us better, and we desire and strive to become more like Them. But when we aren’t making time for Them, we can eventually become unbalanced.
Unbalanced Rhythm
Recently I was talking to a friend who told me about a social media influencer she had started following. This influencer is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. My friend talked about what she thought were great insights and ideas from this influencer.
But I started to worry—many of the influencer’s ideas weren’t completely in line with the scriptures or the prophets.
During our conversation, my friend said, “I don’t even know the last time I’ve read the scriptures!” But she wasn’t concerned, because the influencer said it was OK to not read them.
Since that conversation, I have watched this friend struggle more and more with her testimony as she grows more aligned with the world’s teachings and less in sync with the truths of Jesus Christ.
I often ponder President Russell M. Nelson’s words: “If most of the information you get comes from social or other media, your ability to hear the whisperings of the Spirit will be diminished. If you are not also seeking the Lord through daily prayer and gospel study, you leave yourself vulnerable to philosophies that may be intriguing but are not true. Even Saints who are otherwise faithful can be derailed by the steady beat of Babylon’s band.”2
When we quit prioritizing and maintaining our spiritual rhythm with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, we are at risk of disconnecting ourselves from Their divine help, truth, and power.
Balancing Our Rhythm
Since this experience with my friend, I’ve wondered what things in my life are keeping me from being spiritually synced with Christ.
Ultimately, I realized one of the biggest factors that was throwing off my spiritual rhythm was my time spent on social media. Scrolling social media made me realize how much I was focusing on others’ opinions, putting other things before Christ, and forgetting to read my scriptures or pray.
As I adjusted my social media use and spent less time there, I gained back self-confidence. I stopped worrying so much about the future, and I lost many of the frustrations I’d had with my life.
My relationship with Jesus Christ also became more peaceful because I was no longer allowing social media to dictate my spiritual circadian rhythm. Instead, Christ became my spiritual sun.
Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles counseled:
“Following the principles and commandments of the gospel of Jesus Christ day by day is the happiest and most satisfying course in life. …
“With covenants, obedience to gospel principles becomes rooted in our very soul.”3
Just as our bodies are healthiest when their circadian rhythms are aligned with the sun, I know that my spiritual rhythm is healthiest when it’s synced with and focused on my Savior, Jesus Christ. I believe that as we draw near to Heavenly Father and Christ, lessen distractions, and make more time for the Spirit, we will be able to feel Their divine power more fully and consistently.