Emily Hubbard recalls a trend in women’s discipleship that urged women to rest in Jesus and “stop attempting to do all of it.” The problem was, Hubbard wasn’t attempting to do all of it. She just wanted to recollect to run the dishwasher.
“All discipleship was for type A people, but I used to be a sort Z person,” she said.
Hubbard is a mother of 4, a college board member, and an adjunct professor. Laziness isn’t her problem; attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is.
More than eight million US adults are affected by ADHD. Because the disorder impairs executive function—the self-control needed to work toward a goal—constructing habits for spiritual growth might be far more difficult for the ADHD brain than for somebody who’s neurotypical.
Lifeway Research found that just about two-thirds of Protestant churchgoers intentionally spend time alone with God at the least every day. Cru lists Bible reading, Bible study, Scripture memorization, and prayer as the highest 4 spiritual disciplines that Christians should develop.
ADHD makes these sorts of repetitive tasks hard to take care of. Christians with ADHD may struggle to focus and get distracted after they sit down for an prolonged time of Bible reading and prayer. It can seem unimaginable for them to grow spiritually when the church around them views every day “quiet time” as a marker of discipline.
“For years, all I could do was go to church on Sundays and pray for my children at night, and that was my best,” Hubbard said. “Good thing Jesus died for my best.”
Like Paul’s thorn within the flesh (2 Cor. 12), Hubbard says, she finds her ADHD is an abiding reminder that her performance doesn’t earn God’s approval. Her church, New City South in St. Louis, observes the church calendar, and Hubbard sees grace in its cycles. It is perhaps hard to focus during one particular prayer time, Sunday service, or church season, she says, but there can be next time.
Before the pandemic, Hubbard usually visited Assumption Abbey in Ava, Missouri, for silent spiritual retreats. Hearing the monks pray as they’ve prayed for hundreds of years reminded her that she’s a part of a faith that is greater than her.
More Christians, including Christian leaders, are speaking out about how their ADHD affects their faith lives.
José Bourget, the chaplain at Andrews University in Michigan, mentioned his ADHD in a sermon for the primary time last yr.
“A neurodivergent way of referring to the world isn’t really addressed from the pulpit,” he said.
It wasn’t until the pandemic that Bourget realized his forgetfulness and distraction is perhaps greater than personality quirks. He once missed a flight because he forgot his driver’s license. He justified the error by saying God didn’t want him to take the trip. While he still thinks God can work through his distractions, he now thinks it’s necessary to acknowledge the ADHD.
Since his diagnosis, Bourget—now in his 40s—is working to unlearn years of guilt and shame for what he believed were personal failings.
He repeats easy truths like “Christ accepts me.” He declares that the ADHD brain isn’t a broken brain and speaks of God’s love and acceptance for those with ADHD. He’s preaching to himself as much as to anyone else.
“It sounds oversaid and overdone,” he said, “but feeling like I never fit and never belong, acceptance may be very critical.”
Bourget has also given himself “permission not to adapt” to set practices of Scripture reading and silent prayer. Instead, he sets up some basic structures—time each morning to spend with the Lord—but exercises freedom inside that. Sometimes he spends more time in prayer; other times it’s contemplation or watching a video of a sermon.
Bourget notices students at Andrews combating these issues. He makes some extent of letting them know he is accessible. When students express guilt that their brains don’t appear to work like everyone else’s, Bourget helps them find practices that work for them.
Trying to be quiet, still, and focused for prolonged periods is difficult for individuals with ADHD—whether it’s to check for sophistication or to supply prayers to God.
Alex R. Hey, an ADHD coach, addresses the sense of shame and failure that may come from this inability to carry attention in silence. He reframes these limitations for himself and his clients with lines like “I get to hope otherwise.”
It helps to do not forget that that is how God made him. “Personally, I feel that it humbles me,” he said.
Like other sorts of neurodivergence, ADHD manifests on a spectrum. While some may describe their struggles as humbling, others find ADHD debilitating. Jeff Davis, now a lay leader at Stonebriar Community Church outside Dallas, said he struggled to seek out and hold a job on account of his poor executive function. He spent almost two years homeless before getting help.
In addition to using counseling and medicine, individuals with ADHD can develop coping strategies.
To engage Scripture, Hey often uses lectio divina—a monastic practice with a formula for reading, meditating, praying, and contemplating. It keeps his mind connected to the text.
Because the ADHD brain is vulnerable to hyperfocus, people may fixate on one thing to the neglect of all the things else. Once, as Hey meditated on the passage where a lady anoints Jesus’ feet, he couldn’t get past the image of the lady kissing Jesus’ feet (Luke 7:37–38).
“I don’t like feet, so all I could take into consideration was how gross feet are,” he said. But as he thought deeper about what was happening within the passage, he realized the one a part of Jesus the sinful woman felt worthy of touching was his dirty feet. He then imagined Jesus reaching for her hand and lifting her up.
“When we don’t feel worthy and don’t feel loved, Jesus reaches down and lifts us up,” Hey said.
Other ancient Christian prayers and traditional liturgies can resonate with the ADHD brain. Michael Agapito, a graduate student at Northern Seminary, finds quiet time daunting but uses lectio divina, The Book of Common Prayer, and the Jesus Prayer: “Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”
“There’s an enormous reservoir of church tradition that we’re also rightful heirs of, but we’ve never really tapped into that in modern evangelicalism,” said Agapito, who was diagnosed in college.
While he developed habits managing symptoms, he’s struggled to let go of perfectionism and see his ADHD as ordained by God. He described his mind as a pinball machine bouncing between ideas and never slowing down.
“As a Christian and someone in ministry, I understand that God deemed it fit to present me this condition in his windfall, wisdom, and sovereignty,” he said. “Growing up, I form of checked out it as a curse, but I’m also a few of it as a present.”
As Agapito considers becoming a pastor, he wants his future congregation to be taught spiritual disciplines with intentionality and to welcome all those that struggle to maintain up with the habits—neurodivergent or not. “The average Christian struggles with them loads too.”
Megan Fowler is a CT contributing author who lives in Pennsylvania.
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