Diet detoxes and programs for healthier eating are everywhere: plans to re-orient habits to cultivate better physical health. Whole30—a clean-eating plan designed to revamp eating habits over 30 days—is just one of many examples. These are great, but arguably some of the greatest sicknesses of the digital age are not the result of bad food diets as much as bad information diets.
That’s the premise of my new book, The Wisdom Pyramid: Feeding Your Soul in a Post-Truth World. We need for our spiritual health what the food pyramid was for our physical health—guidance on what to eat and not eat, and in what proportions.
To celebrate the launch of the book, and to put its principles into practice during the 40-day Christian season known as Lent (kicking off on Ash Wednesday, Feb. 17, and running until Easter), I thought I’d put together a wisdom diet challenge.
Instead of Whole30, I’m calling it Wisdom40.
Many digital detox programs are mostly about how to rid yourself of screens for a period of time. The Wisdom40 challenge is different in that it’s less about what not to do and more about what to do. Certainly part of it will require spending less time on your devices so you can spend more time with healthier sources of knowledge. But this challenge, and the book it is based on, are more about putting digital technology in its proper place than throwing it out altogether. It’s a constructive rubric and plan for rebuilding sturdy scaffolding for wisdom.
I invite you, your church, and your family to join me in the #Wisdom40Challenge—something that I think will be fun, edifying, and maybe a little wisdom-producing. Here’s how it will work.
The Wisdom Pyramid contains six categories/levels. Below are five suggested activities for each category. Over a span of 40 days, try to check off at least two of the five options in each category. Print out this page and circle the activities you’ve completed to keep track of your progress. Bonus points if you can complete three, four, or all five activities in each category!
Bible
Read through the whole book of Proverbs, one chapter a day. Spend five minutes in prayer after your daily reading, asking God to grant you wisdom.
Pick one passage or entire chapter(s) from Scripture to memorize. Practice daily to help commit it to memory (perhaps following this method). Some passages to consider memorizing are Psalm 1, Psalm 23, Psalm 46, Isaiah 53, Colossians 1:15-20, Ephesians 1:3-14, Philippians 2:1-11, Revelation 21:1-8, Romans 8, Romans 12, Matthew 5.
Listen to all the Psalm-based songs in Poor Bishop Hooper’s EveryPsalm project (find them on Spotify here), or other Scripture-based albums like those from Psallos, The Corner Room, Cardiphonia, and others.
Read Matt Smethurst’s short book, Before You Open Your Bible: Nine Heart Postures For Approaching God’s Word
If you have kids, read a Bible story to them (or tell it from memory) at least once a day.
Church
Attend your church’s worship gathering every Sunday.
Text someone in your church every week and ask how you can pray for them. Then pray for them.
Send your pastor a note of appreciation, thanking them for how they’ve led and served over the past few difficult years.
Read a short biography about a missionary, theologian, or key figure in church history. Or read one of the books in Crossway’s “Theologians on the Christian Life” series.
Gather a couple people from your church to read through The Wisdom Pyramid together and discuss.
Nature
Go on a daily walk outside, even for just 15 minutes (if that’s all you can spare), and go totally unplugged. Leave your phone, headphones, and other electronics at home.
Take a notepad and find a quiet spot in nature to just sit for an hour. Could be a local stream, pond, or beach; a garden or park in your town; or just under a tree in your backyard. Write down as much as you can about what you observe there. Then, write a few reflections on the kind of Creator who would create “handiwork” like this.
Visit a park or nature preserve with family or friends, and give everyone 30 minutes to take one photo each, of the most beautiful and interesting piece of God’s creation they can capture with their camera. Only one photo! Then share your photos with each other and have each person explain why they took their photo of what they did.
Go to a farm or a local farmer’s market and then make a meal using only (or mostly) the food you picked up there.
Read Wendell Berry’s poem, “The Peace of Wild Things,” and then spend a quiet few minutes outside, reflecting and thanking God in prayer for graciously making the world.
Books
Read an old book (published at least 100 years ago) of enduring Christian wisdom. The “Popular Patristics” series from SVS Press is full of great options, as is the Puritan Paperbacks series from Banner of Truth. If you haven’t read Athanasius’s On the Incarnation, maybe start there.
Read a work of fiction. Perhaps one of Karen Swallow Prior’s recommendations.
Read a book you will mostly disagree with or find maddening. Once finished, try to write down at least three helpful things you took away from it.
Re-read a book you love.
Make a list of the five books (other than the Bible) that have most shaped your faith, with short descriptions of how these books impacted you. Perhaps share your list online.
Beauty
Watch the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy (ideally the extended versions!), or one of my selections from this list on TGC’s website: 15 Best Films About Faith From the 2010s. Watch with family or a couple friends.
Make something beautiful. A song, a poem, a painting, a wood-carving, a hand-sewn COVID mask, a delicious meal, anything.
Listen to the entirety of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion. You can find it on YouTube, Spotify, and most other streaming sites. If that’s too daunting, listen to one of these 6 Works of Classical Music Every Christian Should Know.
Watch one of these Terrence Malick films (that you have not yet seen): Badlands, Days of Heaven, The Thin Red Line, The New World, The Tree of Life, A Hidden Life. Watch on your biggest TV screen and best sound system if possible.
Memorize an Emily Dickinson poem or a Shakespeare sonnet (or really any poem).
Internet and Social Media
Use social media only in positive (non-angry, non-complaining) ways for the 40-day period. Praise someone else’s work. Promote good things (music, films, books) you love. Share insightful quotes or Bible verses. Post cute baby photos.
Take at least one day per week to be completely free of all social media.
Limit your outside-of-work screen time to one hour or less each day.
Post something on social media that publicly praises or gives thanks for a person who has modeled wisdom in your life.
Create a YouTube playlist that curates a collection of videos you’ve found helpful or edifying on a topic of your choice. Share it with others who might find the videos beneficial as well.