Flow State: In The Zone

The concept of flow is rooted in the idea that individuals are happiest when they are fully engaged in activities that challenge their skills and abilities. Flow occurs when there is a perfect balance between the level of difficulty of a task and one's level of skill, leading to a state of effortless concentration and enjoyment. When in a state of flow, individuals experience a sense of timelessness, heightened focus, and a deep sense of fulfillment.

Through research, a man named Csikszentmihalyi identified several key components of flow, including clear goals, immediate feedback, a balance of challenge and skill, a feeling of control, concentration, a loss of self-consciousness, and a transformation of time. These components work together to create a state of flow that leads to increased creativity, productivity, and overall well-being.

Having been an athlete since my early teens and now a theologian I have seen that flow has had a profound impact on athleticism, business and my relationship with others through God. I’ve found that individuals who experience flow on a regular basis are more likely to lead fulfilling lives and achieve optimal performance in their chosen activities. 

The importance is in finding activities that are intrinsically rewarding, In the case of myself, they are physically and spiritually/intellectually oriented. External rewards such as money or fame are not sustainable sources of happiness, and that true fulfillment comes from engaging in activities that are inherently enjoyable and meaningful to the individual.

In essence, God created and worked Creation into existence. In the original plan men were to given dominion over Creation because they were to ‘work’ the creation. That plan got skewed but the main premise underlies the world still. We are to emulate God in our behavior and the closer we come to that ideal state of which we were created for the closer we come to the ‘flow’ state.

People that are more readily able to achieve flow state have autotelic personalities. Autotelic individuals as those who are able to find meaning and enjoyment in almost any situation, and who have a natural tendency to seek out challenges and opportunities for growth. To autotelic people all things have purpose or meaning in themselves/itself. That is why a person who believes in the God of the Bible and understands the theological concepts of sovereignty and providence so readily can adapt and understand a chaotic world.

The idea that a person in the state of flow loses self-awareness to the task of challenge at hand aligns very well to the harmony of the Holy Spirit in line with an individual imbued by the Spirit of God. John 14:3 is clear in this state of mind and being. The kingdom is where he King is.

John 14:1-4 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.”

This state is also mentioned indirectly in John 12:24-26.

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.

Therefore, what we see is if an individual’s heart is aligned with God and they are pursing the very thing they were created to and for, they will become less of their sinful selves and more aligned and akin to what God always wanted them to be. They can and are the proper vessels that God needs them to be. The idea of ‘flow state’ in my opinion makes perfect Biblical sense. I have experienced it often. In wrestling, running, biking, writing, speaking, preaching and even walking in the woods. I have most intensely experienced it while preaching and lifting. In flow state I believe I am reaching my optimal state of discipleship.

When we are doing what God created us for, we are in fact serving Him. It also means God is always working and present in m life, even in hardships. Jesus told is to follow Him on the path of self-denial to the cross, leading to eternal fellowship/flow state with Him. I believe this is why believers who reach this state stand out and are often pronounced in relation to their surroundings.

They are the people that others make statements about like, “The environment doesn’t shape them, they shape their environment.” The other comment most often heard about people in flow state is, “They seem to have a supernatural ability to know things before they happen. They can do things that seem to defy normal convention.” That is because the something ‘extra’ isn’t really them, it is God manifesting in their behavior. At some point the very gifts God gave them morph into something ‘more’. The gift stops and the Spirit takes over.

It is cultivated and developed over time too. Individuals can learn to increase the frequency and intensity of flow experiences by seeking out challenges, setting clear goals, and honing their skills in a particular activity.

Csikszentmihalyi being atheist argued that ‘flow’ is actually a universal experience that can be achieved by anyone, regardless of their religious beliefs. He suggests that flow is a state of optimal experience that occurs when individuals are fully immersed in an activity that challenges them at just the right level. This follows the idea of Christian grace. Yes, the flow state can be experienced by all. 

Concurrently, in Christian belief there is common grace and efficacious grace. All people experience common grace from God. So, flow state can work through a non-believer also for the purposes of a sovereign God but they more effectively or efficaciously work through the Christian when fulfilling the purposes God has set on their lives. That is why I believe when preachers are in the flow state, their sermons are profound and deeply moving. They initiate actions even in other people. It is the Fruit of the Spirit ‘overflowing’ like a cup being overfilled and spilling out to others. It is the same when the bike rider merges with the highway becoming the environment. It is the gardener in their greenhouse, they are euphoric. When the wrestler is stringing moves together effortlessly, always one step ahead, he is like a machine. When the writer is writing and types or writes out 50 pages in one sitting. Then reads what they wrote and doesn’t even remember writing half of it.

Flow for Christians is God’s deepest potential for you realized. You become what God wanted for you to be. It’s the closest you will come to the Kingdom this side of Heaven. Flow in Christian behavior involves a state of intense focus and presence, where the individual is fully engaged in the present moment. Christians often use specific mindsets (pray unceasingly) or scriptures to anchor and connect with God.

The signs….

Effortless Actions: The acts of speaking or serving, feel guided and unforced, as if God is working through you. Presence of God: A tangible sense of God's presence and the nearness of His Kingdom. Overcoming Distractions: Freedom from anxiety, self-concern, and worldly worries, allowing full engagement with the task(s) at hand. Intrinsic Joy: Deep enjoyment and fulfillment found within the activity itself, not external rewards. Mental Stasis: One is neither anxious or bored. They're somewhere in between. Hence the Bible telling is to be industrious but not anxious.

This is why the very things that flow state autotelic people engage in are so fulfilling. It is God in-filling them. Pushing out other things that don’t belong. The person is closer to Kingdom. Flow is a state of complete immersion and focus in an activity, where one's sense of self fades away and they are fully present in the moment. Flow is transcendence of self and a connection to God.

How to cultivate it? Read your Bible. The more you understand it the more it becomes self-evident. Prayer, Christ did it constantly to rejuvenate his Spirit with the Father. He told us too also. Quiet yourself and separate yourself from everything other than the task you’re engaged in. Be single-minded in your approach. Seek to glorify God in your actions or words.

I leave you with an example from Christ’s on life that looks strangely akin to a flow state. It comes in John 4. After talking with the Samaritan woman about the Kingdom doing the Father’s work, Jesus returns to the disciples who are in disbelief Jesus would talk to a Samaritan. What do they say? “Rabbi, eat something.” His reply? But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.” Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?”

“My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.

Jesus was so involved in the work of saving souls for His Father, it usurped the desire to eat. As John Gill’s Bible commentary put it: “ The harvest of souls he had a prospect of was as meat unto him, delightful and refreshing; and his mind and thoughts were so taken up with these things, that he had no inclination to any corporeal food.”

That my friends is ‘flow”. To emulate it in our behaviors is Christ-like.

The Enemy of My Enemy Is My Friend

I used to do a series of posts called "In Their Own Words". There were about 30 of them. I have a tendency to use Roman numerals when I have ideas that run too long and won't fit comfortably in one post so sometimes I spread them over one to ten posts. What I realized is that when people see Roman numerals in double digits after the title they think that they need to read all of the posts in the series to catch the drift of the post they're reading. This isn't true, but because of feedback I am slowly moving away from this type of title or limiting the posts to ten or less. This post would've normally been an "In Their Own Words" post but here it is as a stand-alone. It stands on its own merit. The rabidly anti-Christian atheist Richard Dawkins inadvertently defends a Christian position and the irony was not lost on me so I had to post this.

In a Breitbart article from September 2025, Richard Dawkins declared that “trans women are men,” and that transgender ideology is part of a movement to undermine biological truth. The world’s leading atheist and emeritus fellow of New College, Oxford, Dawkins decried the infiltration of postmodernism and transgenderism into the halls of academia. He is now decrying the very thing that he does to Christians when he makes unsubstantiated absolute truth statements about Christianity which he seems to have an incomplete grasp.

Dawkins went on to further state, “Both politics and personal feelings don’t impinge scientific truths and that needs to be clearly understood. I feel very strongly about the subversion of scientific truth. I think part of what’s happened is the move of academia towards postmodernism, which is pernicious, and probably does account for the current vogue for the nonsense lie that sex is a spectrum.”

So here we have the direct statement from the preeminent expert in biological science who just happens to be a militant atheist stating that the current trend of gender identity and body dysmorphia is a mental issue not based in science at all. Furthermore, he disavows the politics behind it trying to force it into everything from entertainment to the academic fields of college campuses.

He realizes that there are in fact, absolute or objective truths. Surprisingly, this undermines his ability to refute the absolute truth claims of Christianity. By allowing himself to make absolute truth statements about gender and not allowing gender to be subjective and non-scientific he is insisting on a worldview and logic process that also needs to allow for Christians to make their claims to objective truth also.

Dawkins has even stated that, “There’s this post-modern hubris which presumptuously and falsely dismisses science as a social construct, the human conceit here is the idea that personal feelings can change reality.”

The irony is that you can replace Dawkins statements of science with religion or specifically Christianity and the statement would still be valid from Dawkins’ statement: “There’s this post-modern hubris which presumptuously and falsely dismisses religion/Christianity as a social construct, the human conceit here is the idea that personal feelings can change reality.”

Dawkins is literally arguing for support of not only his views but also Christianity (or any religion for that matter). In a war of ideas, those on the side of objective/absolute ‘truths’ like Christianity and science will often makes strange bedfellows.

While the “scientist-trans gender-ist” at first may seem as if it is amusing, what is going on in with Dawkins and other like-minded scientists might be more notable. There, the transgender siege appears to be lifting; its effectiveness is clearly on the wane.

Let us hope this modicum of reason catches hold on this side of the Atlantic not just in Oxford in England.

For me as a Christian, it has been intriguing to watch the culture wars end up on the doorstep of the atheist community. What has happened because of Dawkins’ stance is even more telling of the powers in play and the world we are currently living in. These political powers are all encompassing and are overbearing. Its influence is insidious and pervasive. Its probably worse than even I, a Christian Apologist even imagined they were. These activist ideologues are eclipsing actual scientific truths never mind the spiritual truths they are violating. Scientific and spiritually logical truths which are both based on legitimate Aristotelian philosophy.

The repercussions for Dawkins? The American Humanist Association has already withdrawn Dawkins’ “Humanist of the Year” award in 2021. The organization justified the move based on the biologist’s “history of making statements that use the guise of scientific discourse to demean marginalized groups, an approach antithetical to humanist values.”

While I have to admit, because of my constant debates and arguments with intellectually arrogant atheists, there is more than a touch of smirking from me watching the anti-theists realize that the atheist “apocalypse” they are experiencing is just as dogmatic as the Christianity they disparage or even hate. It has all come home to roost right on their doorstep. So, unless Christians befriend them (pray for them) in what needs to be understood as a spiritual war, they will be hapless. They would be doomed because they don’t even believe in the powers and entities they’re truly battling…they don’t believe or acknowledge the spiritual realm exists.

I will acknowledge that it the notion of “humanist values” has always been nebulous at best, but it is usually based in a firm belief and understanding that science correctly deduced is objective truth. So, for the Humanist Society to fold to these politics is astounding and I can only attribute its power to do so as being spiritual in source. Science endeavors to demonstrate what is; the idea of a godless ideology is overriding this shows its enormous power over the world.

I suppose Dawkins is to be commended for his defense of biology against the transgender assault on scientific truth but he needs to realize in doing so that he inadvertently is defending the objective philosophical truths of Christianity. He can’t have it both ways. If you’re going to fight and fend for the veracity of objective/absolute truths being real in science…you cannot deny them to Christianity. It becomes double standard and hypocritical. Strange bedfellows indeed.

We need to remember that Dawkins has long championed a humanist post-Christian society that has made the transgender movement not just possible, but perhaps even inevitable. Two avenues or routes to the same end. By his arguing against Christianity and belittling of it, he opened the door to everything godless including the very things he is now fighting against. Conversely, before we become too optimistic over the reasons that Dawkins is defending his science or other “defenders of truth,” we should recognize that atheists are doing this for their own selfish reasons and as soon as they destroy this current ‘anti-science’ enemy (which Christians in fact are not), they will just turn on us anyway. We will be adversary number one again instead of being the second most hated enemy. Since they are helping us in our cause we should assist them until at such a time they turn back against us.

The Cancellation and Voiding of Egyptian Gods

We have lived in a cancel culture for the better part of a decade. As Solomon said in Ecclesiastes, there is nothing new under the sun. There was a divine cancellation of a culture approximately 3000 years ago and God was the one doing the cancelling. It occurred during the 10 plagues of Egypt.

The ten plagues of God through Moses against Pharaoh were not just haphazardly selected to be an annoyance to Pharaoh and the pagan Egyptians. These were carefully and purposefully chosen to undermine and discredit Egyptian belief systems. They were in direct opposition to the Egyptians gods and their culture. They were selected by God to demonstrate God's superiority over every aspect of Egyptian religion and life, a religion consisting of the worship of false gods and reverence for creatures rather than the Creator. To start, the Egyptians worshipped serpents, so God changed Aaron's rod into a serpent that swallowed the serpents produced by the Egyptian priests (Exodus 7:1-13). This should’ve been a menacing foreshadowing, but it was clear Pharaoh was hardheaded and hardhearted.

Plague No. 1: The Egyptians worshipped the Nile River as a source of life, so the first plague God turned the waters of the Nile into blood (Exodus 7:14-25). The lifeblood of the desert was turned to unusable blood.

Plague No. 2: The Egyptians held their magicians in great esteem. As the second plague God caused frogs to come up out of the Nile and infest the land, and He confounded the magicians who were unable to undo the plague (Exodus 8:1-15).

Plague No. 3: The Egyptians trusted their priests to officiate in the temples on their behalf, but the priests were not allowed to minister before the gods in an impure, diseased, or blemished condition. As the third plague God caused the dust of the earth to form into lice which infested every man and beast (Exodus 8:16-19). The lice-infested priests were unable to officiate in the temples. The Egyptian system of worship had to come to an screeching halt.

Plague No. 4: The Egyptians worshipped animals, particularly livestock, so as the fourth plague God caused the land to be corrupted by a swarm of flies (Exodus 8:20-32). The flies torment of the livestock was an object lesson to the Egyptians, that they might see how helpless these livestock were before flies sent by the true God.

Plague No. 5: The fifth plague, like the fourth, was aimed at animal worship, causing a terrible disease to fall upon the livestock, killing them by the thousands (Exodus 9:1-7). One might think this would cause the Egyptians to reconsider their worship of animals as gods, as they obviously could not stand before the God of Israel.

Plague No. 6: The Egyptians also believed in an evil god called Typho, and they tried to appease his wrath by burning human sacrifices. Faced with the previous plagues, the Egyptians naturally tried to appease Typho by burning human sacrifices, but as the sixth plague the ash from these sacrifices caused boils to break out upon the Egyptians. Thereby turning the offering to their false gods into the bane of their existence. (Exodus 9:8-12) This of course was demonstrating once again the utter futility of Egyptian religion.

Plague No. 7: Next God turned to the vegetable kingdom, for the Egyptians believed in and worshipped tree-gods and held other plants in superstitious veneration. As the seventh plague, God caused a severe storm with lightning, thunder, hail, and rain, and "The hail struck down everything that was in the field in all the land of Egypt, both man and beast. And the hail struck down every plant of the field and broke every tree of the field." (Exodus 9:22-35, esp. 25). The Egyptian pantheon of creature-worship was devastated. Many of the livestock and people that hadn’t been caught up in the death caused by the fifth plague succumbed to the seventh. There just wasn’t going to be an avenue for escape.

Plague No. 8: One Egyptian god, Serapis, served to protect Egypt from locusts. As the eighth plague, God sent a swarm of locusts, so numerous that they filled the sky and the earth was darkened, and they consumed every vegetable that had not been destroyed by the hail of the 7th plague. (Exodus 10:1-20). By this point the Egyptians should have come to grips with the fact that the gods they worshipped were disintegrating before the onslaught of the true God.

Plague No. 9: If the previous plagues hadn’t already unsettled or completely freaked out the Egyptians the next plague was going to as it was affecting things from outside this world. One class of Egyptian deities still remained untouched-the sun, moon, and star gods. As the ninth plague, God caused three days of darkness so thick that the people could not see one another(Exodus 10:21-29). Dark as a grave for three days. Even the celestial and cosmic bodies had fallen in defeat before the God of Israel.

Stripped of the protection of all their gods, the Egyptians now stood alone…desolate and godforsaken.

Plague No. 10: Then came the final and definitive plague as the tenth plague, even their human hopes for the future, the first-born sons, were stricken and killed(Exodus 11:1-10). It is only at this point Pharaoh finally relented and ordered the Hebrews to depart from the land. The Egyptians and their gods had finally conceded defeat. The death of the firstborn by a selective culling is nearly unprecedented. They are defenseless in light of the previous nine plagues, and they have no defense against Destroyer other than repentance and acknowledgement of God for who he is in the Passover. When you have no other answers or all your other answers have been exhausted of destroyed you only have God to turn to.

The death of the firstborn in Egypt is a pivotal event in the biblical narrative, marking the climax of God's judgments against Egypt. This event is not only a historical moment of deliverance but also a prophetic picture of Jesus Christ, the ultimate Passover Lamb. Every detail, from the selection of the lamb to the unleavened bread, points to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The Israelites' faith and obedience to God's command to sacrifice a lamb and mark their doorposts with its blood not only spared them from the plague but also established the Passover as a perpetual commemoration of God's deliverance. The final plague, the death of the firstborn, demonstrates God's sovereignty over Pharaoh and Egypt's gods, paralleling the Gospel message that Jesus' blood saves us from eternal death.

Pattern Precognition

In Genesis 1:27, one of the writers of the Bible claims that “God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created them.” Physical features are not the only qualities gods share with humans. Pattern recognition appears to be another. A God that can make sense out of patterns in nature is certainly a powerful being. According to a new study from Georgetown University, it appears that humans endowed with this skill are more likely to believe in a God also.

While the more fervent religious believe their views to be correct, an are likely to see the possibility of patterns where others can't. The team observed a link between the strongest implicit learners and religious belief. Recognizing patterns before they appear is correlated with belief in a God. Cognitive science research often suggests that people are naturally inclined to detect patterns in their environment. These studies propose that the tendency toward religious or spiritual belief might be a byproduct of our brain’s pattern-seeking mechanisms. Below is an in-depth exploration of why these findings do not undermine faith but, rather, can be seen as supportive of a deeper spiritual reality. In reality it is a form of pattern precognition.

Human cognition is wired to seek out relationships and structures in the world around us. Neuroscientists and psychologists, such as Justin L. Barrett in his publication “Why Would Anyone Believe in God?”, have noted that from an early age we perceive intentionality behind events we witness. Whether it is reading symbols in clouds or inferring agency (action or intervention, especially such as to produce a particular effect) in unexplained movements, our brains instinctively look for cause and effect.

This predisposition to discern patterns is often linked to what researchers call “hyperactive agency detection.” The mind is so eager not to miss potential threats (or opportunities) that it attributes agency, sometimes even where none physically exists. Cognitive science studies thereby theorize that religious belief might comes from this same mental process of detecting agency at work in the world, culminating in belief in the Creator God of the Bible.

Patterns and meaning are not accidental within a biblical framework. Scripture recognizes that humanity is designed with a capacity to discern and pursue the divine. In Ecclesiastes 3:11, it is written, “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men, yet they cannot fathom the work that God has done from beginning to end.” This alludes to an inbuilt awareness that there is more to reality than immediate, observable material processes.

Moreover, the very act of looking for order in the natural world reflects the truth of Romans 1:20: “For since the creation of the world, God’s invisible qualities-His eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from His workmanship, so that men are without excuse.” The Bible portrays the quest to find structure and meaning as part of humanity’s universal inheritance. We inhabit a universe that not only has physical patterns (like gravity, genetics and atomic structures) but also carries evidence of purposeful design.

When research highlights that “religious belief” can be traced to pattern recognition dispositions, it does not necessarily follow that faith is illusory. From this perspective, one might instead argue that humanity’s inherent sensitivity to order and design points back to a God who embedded an innate sense of the divine within each person.

In these pattern recognitions we see humans were designed for belief.  If the universe truly has a divine Author, it is logical to propose that our capacity to detect agency aligns with objective reality. Pattern recognition is not a defect but a feature of humanity’s created nature.

In the ability to see patterns in nature we see a convergence of Science and Faith. Mechanisms of the brain do not invalidate a transcendent source of reality. Scripture affirms that we can examine truths about God by observing His works. Cognitive tendencies that provoke questions about a Creator are consistent with that revelation. We seek God in the things that are.

Psalm 19:1: “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands.”

Cognitive science data showing that humans detect patterns, including the inference of intentional agency, does not negate faith. Rather, it highlights how people are created with the capacity to recognize meaning and design in the world. Scriptural revelation introduces the Source behind that design and invites humanity into relationship with the divine Author.

Thus, while pattern recognition may be part of the brain’s fundamental toolkit, the biblical narrative affirms that such cognitive tendencies are part of our God-given ability to discern His presence. This recognition finds its ultimate expression in the risen Messiah, who offers reconciliation between God and humanity. Far from diminishing belief, these studies underscore the harmony between the human mind’s quest for order and the testimony of an orderly, loving Creator revealed in Scripture.

It follows that in some people this ability of pattern recognition may even be enhanced or even more acute than the general populace if only because of statistical distribution. Some just fall outside the Bell Curve on the upper side.

Individuals who can unconsciously predict complex patterns, is an ability called implicit pattern learning, and are likely to hold stronger beliefs that God exists who creates patterns of events in the universe, according to neuroscientists. This should come as a shock to no one…except possibly an atheist. I've integrated this not only into my private life but also my vocational work life as a Quality Manager/Engineer. I see what the Quality industry calls Failure Modes. This usually happens long before the statistics or math bears out the facts and the truth.

In the end my ability to do this has usually become a net negative. I either worry about trends or patterns that seem to be pointing to something that never actually materialize or worse, they do. I saw COVID coming months in advance and the immediately shifted gears within a month of it breaking loose on the world to see it was going to be used as a tool of control. Since approximately 2017 I’ve seen the dysfunctional and irrational societal patterns before anyone else, so very few listen, and then once broader society also starts becoming aware of it, if I say anything I'm just told "you got that from [insert public figure here]".

I, being able to see ideological and societal dysfunction taking place 5 years before anyone else yet being helpless to do anything about it, has been my pattern. In 2017 I started to see that politics was replacing religion and becoming a secular religion or syncretism. The offshoots like Wokism and Virulent Nationalism were basically break-off belief systems with all of the signs of cults, but no one seemed to see it then. Now people are starting to see that the rise of secular political religions are happening and becoming a problem. Back then either people couldn't comprehend what I was saying, or just told me I was crazy or wasn’t an ‘expert’.

Is it a gift? I don't know, I think it a trauma response. I see the larger picture in a thousand disparate points of data. God's in the details. More often than not it has been a burden. I speak, few listen. DO note I have never made these claims about myself. I've been told this for the last 30 years since getting off alcohol and drugs. By college professors, pastors, elders, learned individuals, wise men. It has only been since my mid-20s that these things have become more manifest. Other Christians call it prophetic. Non-believers who have observed it call it uncanny. I call it a curse. I didn't ask for this.