39 – The Lost Art of Rumination

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Do you maintain such a frantic schedule that you are not able to think deeply about the matters most important to you? It is time for this to stop. Listen to this episode to rediscover the lost art of rumination. Learn how to proactively arrange your work in such a way that you can once again develop valuable insights leading to impactful communication.

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Episode Transcript

David Beroth

I’ve been thinking recently about… thinking. As a matter of fact, it seems that thinking is a bit in short supply compared to tweeting these days. So in this episode, let’s talk about this topic, the lost art of rumination.

Intro

Welcome to another episode of the Christian Nonprofit CFO Podcast. This is the place to enhance your insight as a CFO in order to expand your influence and optimize your ministries impact content on this show is to inform, instruct and encourage your strategic development. It is not to render specific financial or legal advice for your organization. Now here’s your host, David Beroth.

David Beroth

Hello, my friends, and welcome to the February episode of the Christian Nonprofit CFO Podcast. Thank you for taking your time today to join me for this episode. As I’ve been thinking recently, it seems that whole element of pondering, considering, evaluating, meditating deeply upon something, rumination does seem to be in short supply. So we’re going to talk today about this lost art of rumination, because if you want to succeed long-term as a financial leader, I think you need to deeply ruminate about topics before you, if you’re going to succeed and serve well in your organization.

Let me start off by giving two examples, when I think about this topic of rumination. Back about five years ago, when I was at Seed Company, I was invited by our donor development—the leader’s name was Mike—to attend a large major donor event that we were hosting in Arizona. I enjoyed attending the events because it was good to be able to rub shoulders with our donors, to connect with them, to share with them what the Lord was doing the ministry, and to see them want to partner financially with the organization. So I was going to go to this major donor event, but Mike came back to me and he said, David, I would like for you to co-lead the official ask at the end of the event with one of our board members. I had a little fear and trepidation about doing that because that was definitely out of my comfort zone and a little bit nerve wracking. But as we talked about it, I said, well, if I can serve in that way, I would be glad to do so. So as I was thinking about the content and we developed a script of what I could share with our board member, I began to think deeply about what that would look like and what it might entail.

I could stand up and really share from my heart what the Lord was doing at Seed Company to see these donors engage. So I went out there to the event. It was a marvelous event. I remember for the first time I sat down at a table with a billionaire. It was a doctor who was a medical entrepreneur, but he was there to learn about Seed Company to see about maybe participating in the organization. So finally the day came, and I stood up there on the big stage with our board member, and the lights were on us and you can hardly see the crowd. And I just remember the Lord helping us, enabling us as we tag-teamed and had some conversation about the ministry and invited the partners to participate in a meaningful way. And what a blessing that was as I internalized the opportunity to bring this invitation and to see what God did. It was just a marvelous thing.

Another example, about four months ago, I had the opportunity to be in Washington DC for a ministry event. While I was there, I went and connected with another financial leader and we connected over lunch. We were talking about variety of things. Well, at the end of the conversation, this gentlemen brought up an idea of something he had been considering and he put it out there for my consideration. And I was just considering it later and thinking about maybe a way that I could help in a particular need, ended up calling up and talking to another financial leader. However, on the hour and a half drive back to DC for the event, I was just deeply thinking and pondering what the request was— what the idea was. The Lord began to give me ideas of how maybe I could step in and help in this particular need over the next couple of days.

And the next few weeks I began to just ruminate deeply over this idea and the Lord would give me thoughts. And I would begin on my notes in my iPhone too, to just put down some ideas. And I began to assemble those ideas, hopefully in a meaningful way. Well, then in December we had a follow-up conversation. I was able to both hear out more what the initial thoughts were. And then I could present some ideas. The Lord had given to me a way that maybe we could help meet this particular need. But that came about through God’s grace, and it came about through deep pondering, thinking, and ultimately ruminating over the particular topic at hand.

I believe that unfortunately we have lost that art of rumination. We’ve lost the ability to think deeply about a topic and to see ideas really come forth that would be meaningful to help meet real needs in your organization and to help with those who are around you. So let’s talk today about this lost art of rumination. I’ve broken it down into three main areas. First of all, I’d like to define rumination for sake of our podcast episode today. I’d like to describe for you how rumination practically works for you and in your role. And then I would like to talk, thirdly, about describing some of the benefits for rumination, and I think there are many. And hopefully I’ll be able to encourage you to spend a little less time being frantic in your role, a little more time ruminating, thinking about the value you bring as a financial leader.

So, let’s first of all talk about defining rumination. I’d define rumination in this way, “Internalizing content in such a way that you are its master and not its servant.” That’s just a practical working definition that I thought would be helpful for our conversation today. Once again it’s, “Internalizing content in such a way that you are its master and not its servant.”

When I think about this element of rumination, I was mindful of what the Lord has for us in Joshua chapter one, verse eight, where it says there, “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate”—or you might say you might ruminate—”in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.” What was the Lord saying there? He says, I’ve given you my word, Joshua, because I want you to meditate upon it. I want you to think deeply about it. I want you to consider how it can be applied to your life and in doing so when you observe the things that you learn and the things that you think about you will have good success.

Well, certainly we should be doing that in the Scriptures, but also I believe that that is an example of what the Lord would have for us. If we want to thrive as financial leaders, we need to think deeply. We need to internalize the content and the concepts that are before us to do well as leaders. If you’re processing and thinking about your financial material, you need to do it in such a way that you can present that material with clarity, with competence and with confidence. As I was thinking about it, I thought, well, realistically, there are at least three levels of processing financial material. Perhaps there are more, but let’s talk about three briefly. When I’m thinking about, okay, I’m going to present some financial information for the February financial material for my organization. Well, there’s one aspect of simply summarizing it. That’s very basic. You could say, I’m going to demonstrate my general understanding by giving a brief summary of these financial data points and that’s fair, but it’s very basic. It’s very general, not a whole lot of meat on those bones, if you will, but you can summarize it. That’s the beginning.

What’s the second level of processing information? We can analyze it. And by analyzing it, I would say that you have mentally wrestled with material in such a way that you have a pretty good grasp on it. It’s not just, okay, here’s a summary of the information. No, I’ve really spent a little time mentally thinking about it and analyzing how some of these data points fit together to help out with the particular presentation that I’m giving or the information that I’m sharing. That’s analysis. And boy, do I like to analyze. That is my sweet spot. That’s how God has made me. And I do like analysis. So analyzing is important.

However, I would submit to you, that if you really want to thrive in your financial presentations and as a financial leader, you need to go to that third level of internalize. So not just summarize and not just analyze, but you need to internalize. What do I mean by internalize? I would say to internalize is when the information has moved from your head to your heart, and you can then speak with clarity and conviction. When you have numbers before you, you can present them by your head, you can say like, I have a conversation with the Feds and we’re going to talk about interest rates and whether they should go up or down 25 basis points. That’s good analysis. But when you can take those numbers and you can bring forth insight from those numbers, when you can take the data before you, and you can transform that data into information, you are then beginning to internalize that information in such a way that you can truly help those who are around you in your organization to thrive, because you own that financial material and you can share deeply about it, because it has worked in your own heart and then you can share with others. You might say, really? You really think financial information can move from your head to your heart? I would say, absolutely. Because in doing so, you’re able to say, Here are the numbers— but these numbers, let me share some faces that these numbers represent. Let me share some stories, let me share some transformed lives because of what these numbers have meant. And when you start to bring forth that type of information through that lost art of rumination, that is when you will bring tremendous value as a financial leader. The more you digest your material and the more you allow that material to impact your thinking, the more you can convey your material in an impactful way to your audience. And I think you will find that your audience will begin to enjoy your presentations more and more.

A number of years ago, I remember reading about Stephen Covey when he talked about the law of the farmer versus the law of the student. That picture has really stuck with me because, when you’re a farmer, you can’t cram for the test. You can’t say, Well, I’m just going to quickly study it to get this information out there and pass the test. That’s not what farmers do. No, you have to plant that seed. You have to water the seed. You have to allow the sunshine to come down and, and to do its marvelous work of nature and the way God’s ordained it for those seeds, to be able to come forth and to grow and eventually bring forth fruit. If you want to thrive in this art of rumination, you need to be thinking like a farmer and not like a student.

I remember in my own yard a couple of years ago, there were quite a few brown spots. Keeping up with my yard is not one of my sweet spots in life, if you will. So I was working with a gentleman and we were planting some grass seed and trying to make sure you get it all prepared well and get the grass watered and things like that. But my tendency is, Okay, I want a nice yard for the spring or summer. By late winter, I’m going to plant some grass seed and hopefully I’ll have a nice yard ready to go. And they’re like, no, no, no, no. If you want to have a nice yard in the spring or the summer, you really should—at least here in North Carolina—you should plant that grass seed in the fall and allow those roots to start grabbing hold and to deeply bury themselves in the dirt. So that by the time spring time comes around, the roots are ready and that grass seed begins to grow and to thrive and to flourish. And truly that’s what happened. We worked hard in the fall. We got that grass seed down and I worked to get that water on it. And God did what only God can do. The grass seed began to grow. And the next spring, it was a beautiful yard, but I couldn’t cram for that.

And I think, unfortunately, we don’t take that seriously. When it comes to financial leadership, we’re busy. We have a lot on our plate. We’ve got things calling for our attention. We’ve got the recent tweets we’re trying to keep up with. And it’s like, No, we have to set that aside. And we have to think and ponder and ruminate deeply in order to thrive in what we’re trying to do. So be a wise farmer with your financial information so that you can have mature financial presentations and material to give forth to those in your organization.

So that’s point number one, How do you define it? Number two… let me just share with you some thoughts practically of what rumination could look like for a financial leader. How do you get from a seed of an idea into an impactful presentation? I don’t know about you, I know some people are very gifted to be able to quickly take ideas and to transform it into a meaningful presentation. That is not me. It takes me time. It takes me consideration. It takes the Lord’s hand to say, Okay, let me begin to gel some thoughts to incrementally compile ideas before a meaningful time of sharing comes forth. It does not come in, well, one fell swoop for me. And I’m going to guess for many of you, it doesn’t come in one fell swoop either. The more creative the material, and the more unique the material that you will need to spend time ruminating over what that material is to have it transformed into an impactful presentation.

So for instance, I have chosen in life to do this little hobby of doing a podcast. I hope it’s of service to you. That is my goal. I like to be able to share thoughts that the Lord has given to me in financial leadership, and I hope that they can be a blessing to you in your roles as financial leaders. So I decided one time—actually, it was probably driving to work one morning—and the thought came to my mind: Rumination… that’s an interesting topic. I can’t say I’ve heard many, you know— I haven’t got much CPE credits from rumination. Let’s talk about rumination. Well, that was an idea. Well, then I started to think, well, okay, what am I going to talk about rumination? So I began to get a few ideas, and, probably about one morning drive to work, I pulled out my phone and pulled up a note and turned on the microphone and started to just share some random ideas: Well, I think this is important about rumination, I think that’s important about rumination. So I just began to a compile some rough, random, various, and sundry ideas.

Later, I thought, okay, well, how do these ideas come together? I can start compiling these basic ideas into an outline to hopefully take randomness and begin to bring order and meaning from those ideas. And that’s what I did. So then I began to mull over that content, and I said, well, yeah, these points kind of make sense like this, and those points don’t make sense and I can internalize, and what should I really stress here? And what’s not relevant I can throw out? So I began to form formulate that content into hopefully a meaningful outline to help you in this podcast episode. Then I began to add examples and say, well, here are a couple of examples that might help bring this thing to life. And here’s a couple of scriptures that would be relevant for this topic. And then, before you know it, my content, my outline of my examples are coming together, and then like, okay, I’m ready to review my notes. And I’m ready to record this episode. And Lord willing, it’s a blessing, and away we go. Well, that’s what happened to me as I was thinking about this very podcast episode.

By ruminating, what you do is you have this opportunity to shift and go back and forth from, I’m seeing the big picture, I have this concept of rumination, but then I want to sort through the minutia. What does it really mean to ruminate? How should I define it? What are relevant examples? And you go back and forth between the high level, the big picture, the forest and the trees. And you can toggle back and forth between those to hopefully come up with a good presentation. The more complex the information, the more important the presentation, the more time you will likely need to have to germinate on your thoughts.

So I’ll give you three categories. I hope this is practical for you. Category number one, if you have a financial presentation that you have to give where the content is completely new content, I would recommend you start prepping at least one to two weeks ahead of time. For instance, when I speak for staff devotions—I try and do it every three or four months—I will likely start developing my content at least two weeks in advance. I’m not going to all the minutia two weeks in advance, but I try to say, Lord, what’s a general theme? What’s a specific passage? What’s a topic that would be helpful that I could start thinking about to help fully have a meaningful time of devotions? When I go to share for the ministry, I will start thinking a couple of weeks ahead of time. Actually, what I do, I have a running list, and when I’m reading my devotion someday, and God gives me an insight and a scripture, I like to just jot it down on my running list. So when I go to speak for devotions, I at least some possible topics I can pull from to do for staff devotions. However, outside of devotions, if I’m trying to present a new, complex financial idea in the organization, I’m going to want to take plenty of time to start processing and developing the thoughts. Maybe it’s a modified financial model. Maybe it’s a different business concept. Maybe it’s something that’s unique in the world of auditing or financial reporting. You want to present it to those in your organization. You want to make sure you have plenty of time to ruminate over that topic so you can present it in a winsome, wholesome way. 

Even currently, I’m working through my team right now on a financial model of what it would look like to pull some investments out of a fund on the stock market in an intentional way. If we know we’re gonna have to pull funds, how do you do it in a meaningful way? So you’re not always at the whims of whatever the market is and any given day, if you can forecast it. How do you do that in in an appropriate way? Well, that’s something that’s gonna take quite a bit of time, and we’re developing a model, we’re talking about it, we’re processing it. Well, I know that at some point in time, I’m going to share this with my boss, but for right now, we are trying to work through that content and ruminate over it and to make sure we’ve got good thoughts before we even would attempt to present this to others. So category number one… Completely new content, give yourself plenty of time to ruminate about that category.

Number two, a new presentation, but a standard type of content. So for instance, if you’re going to be presenting your annual audit, if you’ve done all the work and you now have your budget together, and it’s finally time to present your annual budget, I would suggest that you give yourself at least two to five days of preparation, time to begin putting your material together in a way that’d be most beneficial to your board to your board committees, whoever it might be, give yourself two to five days. In doing so this allows you to work through relevant questions, outstanding questions, unresolved issues, that you and your team can begin to formulate answers to those matters in a non-stressful way. You don’t like it. I don’t like it. It is no fun if you have to present on Thursday afternoon at 2:00 and you’re furiously working away on Thursday morning at 7:30 in the morning, you’ve come in early to put together your presentation. You’ve got three questions and you’re dashing off emails and writing them off to your team about— I gotta figure this out and why is this not tying out? How’s this work? And everybody’s furiously working together Thursday morning for your Thursday 2:00 PM presentation. I would say, cut that out! Intensely say, I’m not gonna do this anymore. This is crazy. If I know I’ve got to do a presentation, give yourself plenty of time to prepare the material, allow it to ruminate in your own mind, to be able to internalize that financial material and allow your team time to work with you to develop the appropriate material to present. 

So when you have important meetings, when you have different presentations, when you have speaking opportunities, when you have board interaction, leadership team meetings, or things such as that, give yourself a couple of days to develop the concepts, to put together the ideas, to assemble the framework, to fill in where the examples go, to think about what’s my appropriate introduction, my conclusion, rework it a couple times to make it interesting and impactful. And I think when you go to show up to give that board presentation, your board will be pleased and grateful that you have really pondered and ruminated over that material. And you can present it in a winsome way that will make you look like a wise financial leader, because you’ve done your homework and you’ve shown up with the information, you are ready to go for that presentation. So before the presentation then, you’ve done that work, finally, you can fine tune things, review the notes one more time, and then you’ll be ready to go. So new presentation, but a standard type of content. Give yourself at least two to five days.

The third category for a basic standard presentation. Maybe you have a standard monthly financial update you do where it’s pretty normal. You’ve got a few numbers that change, and you have to update a few reports. That’s fine, but make sure you do it at least one day ahead of time. Once again, don’t be furiously working away the morning of the presentation. Give yourself time. You know, there are the interruptions that come up, you know, you’ll get the emails of, Hey, I need your attention right away to deal with this issue. Then, you have some personnel matter come up. Give yourself time, give yourself that margin for those interruptions, which will inevitably arise. So you can deal with your content and still show up. Having put out the most recent fire, ready to go to share your presentation. So you might be thinking, David, this is pie in the sky. This is just simply unreal. My schedule is way too hectic for this. I will suggest to you that if you don’t have time to be planning for your material, it is shame on you because the more you think this way and work this way, the less stress you will have in your life and the more impactful your content will be that you share.

I would just really urge you really think about how you can lean into this element of rumination, planning, strategically, thinking about your material. And I think you’ll be blessed in the process. So we’ve talked about defining the value and the need for rumination. We have talked about describing how it practically works to assemble that content into put all those details together and to give yourself time. Let me just briefly talk about some of the benefits, because, as I’ve thought in my own life what a blessing this has been in my work experience, I want to encourage you on some of these benefits. So I believe that the lost art of rumination is a comprehensive way of thinking and handling your overall work structure. But if done well, it can significantly enhance your work experience.

Let me give you seven quick benefits I believe that come from this lost art of rumination. Number one, rumination gives you time to really process the material and allows you to speak confidently and competently on the material. At the actual time of presentation, you don’t have to be the expert on this point every day of the week, every day of the year. But when you go to show up, you need to be confident and competent that you are the expert, you know, the material and you are ready to go. That’s one of the benefits.

Rumination number two, rumination allows you to speak from your heart and not just from your head, because if you’ve done your homework, you will be able to really connect with your audience. If you do it well, you don’t have to be glued to your notes. Of course, your notes are there to help guide your presentation, to guide your discussion, but you have internalized the material and you can look your audience in the eyes and say, Let me share with you what this material really means and why it should make a difference for you and what the relevant information is that you can glean from this information. You can accomplish that through the lost art of rumination.

Number three, rumination can demonstrate your leadership capabilities and that you are a subject matter expert in your financial field. It’s amazing when you show up and you know your material, because you’ve done your work that people truly will see you as the expert that you are. It is not beneficial for you or the ministry or for your audience if you show up all disheveled and you’re trying to figure out your notes and you’re missing your points and you’re jumping back and forth, you are not acting as an you are not the expert in your material. So show up and be the expert and let people respect you as the expert.

Number four, rumination helps to calm your mind and allows you to be confident in your material. It is a wonderful thing when you stand up. And of course, you’re always a little nervous when you first stand up and you begin to share, or you’re sitting around the conference room table with your board, but you can have a calm mind as you begin to share the content that you have before you, because you’ve done the work, you’ve thought deeply about it, you’ve internalized it, you can have a calm mind and a peaceful heart.

Number five, in preparing ahead of time, it decreases your stress level. When the unexpected interruptions occur before the meeting, as they often do, we shouldn’t be surprised when those emails come up that need our attention. When somebody walks in and they have a couple of things they need to process with you right away and there’s a form you need to sign. Don’t be surprised at that. So do your work ahead of time, decrease your stress level and enjoy your work in the process.

Number six, rumination minimizes late nights at the office and sloppy presentations. Who wants to have to work late at night? So work hard, forget the all-nighters that you tried in college. It didn’t work very well then, and it’s not going to work very well now. So skip the all nighters, try to minimize the late nights, do your work ahead of time. And you can enjoy both the experience and the whole ride in the process. If you’ve done your work and ruminating beforehand.

Number seven, rumination is good for your professional development because you can wrestle with your material to come out of the presentation as a mental victor and not a mental servant. It really is good. Rumination allows you to be that farmer, to internalize the content, not to try to cram for a test and you forget the content. By ruminating, it does really help you to mentally grasp and to understand the process and internalize the material.

And I’m going to throw in an eighth one. When I think of rumination, I think of Psalm chapter one verses two and three, because this is such a beautiful picture to me. How in meditating upon a topic and ruminate upon a topic you can bear forth appropriate and abundant fruit in its season. Let me read these two verses, Psalm one verses two and three says, “But his delight is in the law of the Lord, And in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree Planted by the rivers of water, That brings forth its fruit in its season, Whose leaf also shall not wither; And whatever he does shall prosper.”

Now we know as we meditate upon the scripture, we can bear forth that abundant fruit for the glory of the Lord. But I do believe also that we can take that picture once again as we meditate upon and we ruminate upon our material, we can be like that tree that grows forth and bears forth abundant fruit to serve those in the ministry.

So my friends, I hope this episode has been helpful. It’s been good for me to think about the value of thinking, to think about this lost art of rumination. So I hope that you really work hard to think how you can practically implement this element of rumination and find many of the benefits that I have found as you go about this in a very intentional, methodical way. So thank you for joining me for this episode of the Christian Nonprofit CFO Podcast. We’ve thought through together the lost art of rumination. I look forward to connecting with you again in the months ahead to explore how to best enhance our insight in order to expand our impact. I now close in the words of Jude, where Jude says… “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to God our Savior, Who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen.”