Your attention, please. That's what God wants, Leighton Ford discovered. It's the path to becoming like Christ. Distractions, fear and busyness were keeping Ford from seeing God's work in and around him. He was missing God. So he began a journey of longing and looking for God. And it started with paying attention. In these pages, he invites you to journey with him. Using the rich monastic tradition of praying the hours, Ford will walk with you, helping you pay attention to God's work in you and around you throughout each day and in different seasons of your life. If you're busy, distracted, rushing through each day, you might be feeling disconnected from God, unable to see how he's working. You might be missing him. But the way toward him starts with a pause and a prayer—with intention and attention—and becomes a way of life, awake and alive to the peaceful, powerful presence of God.
Leighton Ford is President of Leighton Ford Ministries, which seeks to help young leaders worldwide to lead more like Jesus and more to Jesus. For many years, Ford communicated Christ around the globe through speaking, writing and media outreach, addressing millions of people in thirty-seven countries on every continent. He served from 1955 until 1985 as Associate Evangelist and later Vice President of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and was featured as the alternate speaker to Billy Graham on the Hour of Decision broadcast. Ford describes his current mission to be "an artist of the soul and a friend on the journey." He served for nearly twenty years as chairman of the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization, an international body of Christian leaders. He chairs the Sandy Ford Fund and has served as a board member for World Vision U. S., the Duke University Comprehensive Cancer Center, and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. He received the 1990 Two Hungers Award, recognizing his contributions to addressing the physical and spiritual hungers of people around the world. In 1985 he was selected as Clergyman of the Year by Religious Heritage of America and TIME Magazine singled him out as being "among the most influential preachers of an active gospel." The author or co-author of numerous books, includingTransforming Leadership and The Attentive Life, Ford lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, with his wife Jean.
An Introduction: Short Flights and Quick Returns One Who Paid Attention: C. S. Lewis Looking Along a Beam 1. Paying Attention: The Hours of Our Lives One Who Paid Attention: Simone Weil on a Postage Stamp 2. The Birthing Hour: Time Before Time One Who Paid Attention: Vincent Donovan—the Masai Chief, the Missionary and the Lion God 3. Daybreak: The Hour of Beginnings One Who Paid Attention: The Teacher Who Took Off His Hat 4. Prime Time: Our Root System One Who Paid Attention: My Spiritual Director Dog 5. Active Life: A Slower Pace in a Faster World One Who Paid Attention: Kierkegaard's Lanterns, Fireworks and Stars 6. The Noonday Demon: Our Distractible Selves One Who Paid Attention: How Mother Teresa Kept Going Holy Stillness: An Interlude 7. When Shadows Come: Darkness Comes Early One Who Paid Attention: Jerry Sittser Trying to Catch the Sun 8. Lighting the Lamps: The House with Golden Windows One Who Paid Attention: Nouwen, a Restless Prophet 9. Grandfather Time: When Evening Comes One Who Paid Attention: Hwee Hwee Tan, Becoming What We Look At Epilogue: The Journey Home Appendix: Observing the Hours Notes In Attention to Gratitude Permissions
"Awakening is a central metaphor for the spiritual life. In a compelling voice that comes from years of spiritual journeying, Leighton Ford shows us how to wake up and pay attention to the presence of God--through the hours of our days and the seasons of our lives." — Ruth Haley Barton, president of the Transforming Center and author of Sacred Rhythms
Ronald Rolheiser
"Leighton Ford writes with insight, faith and balance. This book, like Jesus, transcends all denominational lines. Drawing on the wisdom of many traditions, The Attentive Life is a warm invitation to wake up, not just to the reality of God but to what is deepest inside of us. This is a gold mine of wisdom and balance, a challenging thought on every page. I heartily recommend it to readers of all faiths." — Ronald Rolheiser, author of The Holy Longing
John Ortberg
"This is a book of such quiet beauty and deep simplicity it is difficult to describe. I was both pierced and healed by longing in the reading of it. The word soul is thrown around far too easily these days, but this book will touch the soul if you let it." — John Ortberg, pastor, Menlo Park Presbyterian Church, and author of The Life You've Always Wanted
Luci Shaw
"My heart sings when I realize that Leighton Ford's intelligent experience continues to look with longing for more. His attention keeps getting arrested by words, ideas, images, details of the natural and supernatural landscapes. . . . This book is a primer in how to respond actively to Jesus' challenge: 'Behold! Look! Listen! Take notice! There is still so much for you to discover.'" — Luci Shaw, poet and author of Breath for the Bones and The Crime of Living Cautiously and writer-in-residence, Regent College
Richard J. Foster
"I thank God for The Attentive Life. It provides an antidote to the primary spiritual problem of our day: distraction. The Attentive Life is the mature reflections of one who has spent a lifetime walking in the way of Jesus." — Richard J. Foster, author of Celebration of Discipline and Life with God
