~ CHRIST TRIBE ~

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“We live, in fact, in a world starved for solitude, silence, and private: and therefore starved for meditation and true friendship.” ~ C. S. Lewis

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It’s really difficult to talk to somebody about meditation, because we’re usually absorbed in the distractions of life. We catch a glimpse, then walk away… Too busy to soak in the wonder.

And yet, that first pause, that state experience of wonder and curiosity is an awakening of our intuitive heart to the reflections of glory, and a peak through the threshold.

A Child’s Tale

May I tell you a little story?  When I was four, we lived deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains. My dad was a pastor, and visited his congregation daily. One morning, he took me along on one of his visits.

Dad let me roam in the yard, while he talked with the father of the family. The house was a beautiful, soft blue-gray, with big picture windows that overlooked the mountains.

I was walking through the yard, and came upon Rhododendrons in full bloom. As I looked up at the big soft purple-reddish  flowers, a humming bird descended, and hovered in midair between me and the flowers. It ripped time. Time stopped, hung in midair, and something changed in that little four-year-old’s heart forever.

I’m convinced, we’ve all had experiences like this, a peering over the threshold of time. But then, they get lost and forgotten, in the busy rush of life. It may happened in us, during a fiery sunset, or staring through a hot steaming cup of coffee, in the morning. But it’s there, inside us, when we pause and wonder.

Scripture tells us that God puts eternity in our hearts, but in a way we can’t quite grasp it with our minds. *

Just because we’ve accepted Jesus, doesn’t mean we’ve entered into our love affair with God.

The Tale of Two Frogs

I’m reminded of a story they tell in Zen. It goes like this: There are two frogs sitting on a lily pad. One decides to jump in. How many frogs are left on the lily pad?

The answer is two. Why? Because there’s a huge difference between a decision in the mind, and actually doing it.

Please hear this, just because you accepted Jesus, doesn’t mean you’ve entered into the life that God has for you. It’s passion that brings intimacy. Passion for God’s own heart. Nothing less will do.

And I know of nothing better, that will develop a deep and lasting passion for God, than meditation.

It’s no accident that meditation and medicine look and sound so much alike. Meditation is God’s medicine to heal your soul.

Don’t begin later.  Pause right Now, and Enter your true nature.

* God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end. ~ Ecclesiastes 3:11

Photo Credit: Bob Holmes

“In place of our exhaustion and spiritual fatigue, God will give us rest. All He asks is that we come to Him…that we spend a while thinking about Him, meditating on Him, talking to Him, listening in silence, occupying ourselves with Him – totally and thoroughly lost in the hiding place of His presence. ~Chuck Swindoll

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* Meditation is best known by its changes within us, and not by its practice.

* Meditation is entering into our secret place with God.

* Meditation is the process of growing intimacy, and oneness with God through our practice.

As prayer is conversation with God, so prayer is a relational bridge,

But in deeper meditation, there is a stillness of being that transcends words.
Like sitting with an old friend, meditation is soaking in the presence of God.

Totally Transformational. Totally Awesome.

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“Through the study of books one seeks God; by meditation one finds Him.”  ~ Saint Padre Pio

Christian meditation has been abandoned to the mystics, and to the quacks for far too long. Too long has it been relegated to trite, or obligatory rituals. For between these two extremes, the vast ether of the saints, and the slow daily grind of ritual, is Christian meditation.

From this point we embark upon an exploratory journey of beauty, depth, and transcendent wonders, of the presence and majesty of God.

The essence of Christian meditation is our growing intimacy with God. It’s Being Present in the presence of God, entering into God’s Rest. It’s walking with God, as you would with a friend. It’s silent worship on our face, awe struck with wonder, being dumbfounded at God’s vast, limitless, eternal Majesty.  Meditation moves our heart into a living, growing relationship with God.

Whatever else, the only possible response of meditating in God’s presence, is worship.

Christian meditation, regardless of what form it takes, is a deep inward response to God, a yearning from the very ground of our being. A yearning that causes us to grow in intimacy, grace, wonder.

Christian Meditation is not knowing about God, it’s knowing God intimately. It is tasting and finding out, that God is good. Christian meditation is abiding in the vine, it’s dwelling with God. It’s being seated in the heavenlies, as we walk in the Spirit on earth.

Heart Point:  What is the greatest written meditation of all time?
Hint: It was first written as a song.

Answer:  It’s David’s Psalm 23. Read it meditatively.

Hear and smell the sheep.
Feel the dirt as you sit down.
Learn the skills of a Shepherd.
Cover your head from the winds through the cold nights, and sunny days.
Walk the hills with David.
Sit and meditate and sing to God.
Bring out the Sheep in the morning, and put them up at night.
Take them to the brook, when they need water.
Pick out the lamb that’s going to be your dinner.
Fight for your sheep. Face the Bear and the Lion.
And Rest in God.

Come out of the shadows of  pseudo-spirituality  into reality.  That’s where God is. In our daily life.

                                       Photo credit: ocean.flynn (Creative Commons)

Being is letting go, letting time fall down around you and being present.

The illusion is that our control keeps us safe, but it actually keeps us bound.

The truth is, our letting go allows God to hold us, to heal us, and to empower us.  In surrender, our control falls apart into something greater, a larger grace, a boundless place where our souls expand..

Surrender leads us into what we can’t fully understand, hence what we cannot control. It is our first step of sanity, to becoming whole. It is our first step of grace, our first step of faith, and our first step of trust.

Surrender is the art of letting go, an art we engage the moment we hit our knees, and lift our eyes; the moment we worship, and surrender ourselves, as we “let go and let God”.

Art is a continual practice, that becomes deeper, richer and fuller.

Developing and growing is always progressive, not perfection. What God does is perfect, but we always mess it up. Thank God for grace. We learn and grow.

And as we grow in Christ and Christ in us, our past, present and future begin to converge into our present. Then the veil of eternity becomes very thin.

How cool is that?

Surrender is a trust fall into the arms of God.

Trust and walk with God in the cool of the day.

Take just one step…right here, right now.

* Photo credit: ocean.flynn (Creative Commons)