Meditation.. Not just a yoga thing

I'm snuggled up by a warm stove reading Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster and drinking a glass of red wine, while eating a spoonful of cookie dough. Just a typical night for me. If you have not heard of this book, go and pick it up now. It is incredible. Not a dry read at all, in fact the opposite. In the opening pages He writes :

" Neither should we think of the Spiritual disciplines as some dull drudgery aimed at exterminating laughter from the face of the earth. Joy is the keynote of the disciplines. The purpose of the disciplines is LIBERATION from the stifling SLAVERY  to self interest and fear. When the inner spirit is liberated from all that weighs it down, it can hardly be described as dull drudgery. Singing, dancing, even shouting characterize the disciplines of the spiritual life.."

I am still on the first chapter on MEDITATION. If you're like me then you immediately think someone sitting cross-legged with some candles, trying to float, and thinking of good karma. That's actually not it at all, that's a distorted twisted version of something God calls us to as believers. He calls us to sit and listen to his voice, and to meditate on his word day and night**.

Foster writes, " What happens in meditation is that we create the emotional and spiritual space which allows Christ to construct an inner sanctuary in the heart.." That means not at a coffee shop, busy and distracting, not on the fly with a rushing spirit, but in the quiet, solitude that we separate ourselves from the things that pull us from him, and say " Here I am Lord." 

The verse Rev 3:20, " I stand at the door and knock.." was originally penned for believers, not unbelievers. We who have turned our lives over to Christ need to know how very much he longs to eat with us, to commune with us. He desires a perpetual Eucharistic feast in the inner sanctuary of the heart."

WHile Eastern religion aims to detach from the world, Christian meditation is for attachment. The detachment from the confusion all around us in order to have a richer attachment to God. Christian meditation leads us to the inner wholeness necessary to give ourselves freely."

I want to leave meditation with a heart more like the Fathers. To quote William Pen, " True Godliness does not turn men out of the world, but ENABLES them to live better in it, and excites their endeavors to mend it." 

So when was the last time you turned off your cell phone. Shut the computer, and maybe canceled plans to retreat to a quiet place with God and meditate on his word, to fight through the chaos of your thoughts and find his voice. I know it is there somewhere, pushing to get to the surface if we would only take a moment to desire connecting with him. It's like seeing into God's stream of thought for a moment after he's thought it. He wants us to be in tune with what he is speaking. Otherwise how will we accomplish anything? Our own strength is futile. As I heard this morning you can't "do" to become a follower of Christ, you must abide, know him, be in his presence, the "doing" comes from the follow- it does not replace it. 

I have to be honest, and say it's been a while since I've gotten rid of all distraction and meditated. But thankfully I'm free tomorrow, and it's currently snowing outside. Looks like God was calling me to him near the fireplace with a cup of tea. I hope you have the same opportunity. Would love to hear how it goes!

** Genesis 24:63

    Joshua 1:8

    Psalm 1:2

    Psalm 25:5

    Psalm 63:5-6

    Psalm 119:15, 97

    Proverbs 29:18

    Proverbs 23:26