When is the last time you meditated? Did you know that it could be part of a healthy and productive regimen for you? So says, Daniel Goleman, writing in the Wall Street Journal this past week. In fact...
Goleman researched some 6000 studies written about meditation and completed a Ph.D from Harvard on the subject of meditation and stress, which concluded that almost anyone can benefit from employing this ancient but increasingly popular mental exercise, even a child as young as five.
But wait a minute, haven't I heard about meditation before? Yea, I remember seeing articles over the years about those Buddhist monks, meditating high in the Himalayas, saying little, with an equal lack of movement, conferring with their inner being if only to empty themselves of all that is destructive. The meditation accomplished by Goleman and others seeks to focus the thoughts on particular aspects of their being or their physiology with the intent of better controlling the outside world and its affects upon their lives.
But that's not biblical meditation as was practiced by the those men like Elijah, and David, Isaac and Paul, and most importantly of all, Jesus, the Lord. Biblical meditation, according to author
Richard Foster
is,
”
the ability to hear God's voice and obey his Word.
It involves no hidden mysteries, no secret mantras, no mental gymnastics, no esoteric flights into the cosmic consciousness. The truth of the matter is that the great God of the universe, the Creator of all things Desires our fellowship.” ( Foster, Celebration, pg. 17)
Saints throughout the ages of the church have meditated... Foster notes, “from Catholic to Protestant, from Eastern Orthodox to Western Free church we are urged to live in HIs presence in uninterrupted fellowship...
The Anglican divine, Jeremy Taylor declares, Meditation is the duty of all... And in our day, Lutheran Martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer, when asked why he meditated, replied, because I am a Christian.”
(Foster, pg. 19)
The problem for Christians is a well traveled one. We as believers are surrendering the very tools that God has given his people more than two millennia ago for the successful negotiating of life, for competent worship, for the relief of our anxiety and for a keener focus of our energies directed toward the purposes God has for us.
MJC
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