Why is life always running at full speed?
Is your life too fast paced? I know mine is.
This last week has seen my wife go in for an out-patient surgical procedure, which has left her mostly bed-ridden so far. I have had a midterm exam in Calculus, I have another coming up in Chemistry. I ran sound for the church last weekend and this weekend I installed a new sound system in the car. And this is all in addition to the everyday cooking, cleaning, running around and shopping that we always do.
Life can become so hectic at times. I think we manage to get through these things by putting our brains in auto-pilot and numbly just walking it out.
That of course is not a good idea.
We need time to think. We need time to sort things out, to just feel and let the emotions play out.
I have often been critical of Eastern Religions. Meditation to me was kind of a Yoga thing. Bah! Humbug! was my knee-jerk reaction to that idea! But did you ever notice that the Bible does support the idea of meditation? King David often mentions meditation such as Ps 49:3 “ My mouth shall speak wisdom, and the meditation of my heart shall give understanding.” Ps 63:6 “When I remember You(God) on my bed, I meditate on You(God) in the night watches.”
Meditation is not just for people with an Eastern Religion. 1’st Timothy 4:12-15 says, “Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity. … give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. … do not neglect the gift (of the Holy Spirit)… Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all.”
The pace of this “modern life” seems to rule out any opportunity to just sit and meditate on God and the things He has for us. But I want to encourage you to give this practice some room in your life. I know that the problems of life loom large on the horizon and it is hard to see a way around the many obsicles, but I also know that everything is relative. Our problems are often huge in relation to our abilities, but these same problems are small in relation to God’s abilities. So when I take some time out and just focus on God… my problems tend to shrink back down in size. I have a solid rock with which to compare them. A rock that never changes and always gives me a firm foot-hold.
I believe meditation is a vital, and often over-looked part of prayer. To me it isn’t enough to recite a laundry list of to-do items that we want God to give attention to… I think we need to be open to Him, and to His laundry list of to-do items that we need to give attention to, too!
Maybe that is the part that scares us most… we all know what that could mean.
But if we are not meditating, if we are not getting quite with God and allowing Him to talk to us… are we treating our Lord as King or servant?
