Meditation

Are doing something special this Lenten Season to deepen your relationship with God? 

While Tom will be sending emails throughout Lent about The Heart of Christianity, I will chime in about the spiritual disciplines of our faith a couple times a week. 

Are you more in love with God now than you were five years ago?  How are you nurturing your relationship with God? Think for a minute about your spouse, children, friends and family.  What are the ways you nurture those relationships?  Well, you spend time with them, you listen to them, and you do things together.  In the same way, think of spiritual disciplines as the ways that we nurture our relationship with God.  They are about spending time, listening and doing things with God.

I’ll be using Richard J. Foster’s Celebration of Discipline: the Path to Spiritual Growth as the outline for these devotions:  The Inward Disciplines of Meditation, Prayer, Fasting and Study;  The Outward Disciplines of Simplicity, Solitude, Submission and Service; and The Corporate Disciplines of Confession, Worship, Guidance and Celebration.   I invite you to explore these spiritual practices as opportunities to draw you closer to God. 

Think of these devotions as a buffet where you can see an array of what’s available and then sample what looks good to you.  Maybe you haven’t tried meditation, today’s topic, in awhile.  Perhaps in a future email I’ll describe a new way for you to pray or to serve that you hadn’t considered.  Whichever you choose, my hope is that through our Lenten journey your love for God will grow and that you will sense more deeply God’s love for you.   

The First Inward Discipline – Meditation

Christian meditation is about emptying our minds of the confusion and chaos around us and welcoming God into that place.   It’s that listening thing!   There is no proper time, or place, or posture to meditate, but it is simply a willingness to center your attention – body, mind, emotions and spirit – on God.

There are many forms of meditation, but think about exploring one or more of these….

Meditation on Scripture.  Take a single event, parable, a few verses or even a single word and allow it to soak into your mind and heart. Use your imagination.  Engage all your senses.  What would it feel like to be the Prodigal Son (or daughter!)?  (Luke 15:11ff) Or, how do you feel when you hear Jesus say, “You are the light of the world?”  (Matt. 5:14)  This isn’t Bible study. “Just as you do not analyze the words of someone you love, but accept them as they are said to you, accept the Word of Scripture and ponder it in your heart, as Mary did.  That is all. That is meditation.” (Bonhoeffer)

“Palms down, Palms up.”  Try this exercise.  Place your palms down symbolically giving all your concerns to God.  Whatever it is that is weighing on your mind release it to God.  “Lord, I give you my fear about those blood tests.  I surrender my anxiety about this month’s bills.”  Release them.  Then after several moments, turn your palms up, ready to receive what God has for you. Ask for what you want.   “Lord, I want to feel your peace.” “Lord, I want to feel your love.”  Then just spend some moments in complete silence, asking for nothing. Let yourself be open to feeling God’s presence.

Meditation on Creation.  Look around you.  Really look at the trees and flowers, the water and sky.  Let their beauty sink deep into your mind and heart.

Meditation on Current Events.   Think deeply about something that is going on in our world and our community and ask for insight and for guidance into how we can be God’s light in a dark world.

Foster warns – “You must not be discouraged if in the beginning of your meditations have little meaning to you…..be patient with yourself.… You will be constantly learning and growing as your plumb the inner depths.”

Peace,

Susan

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