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What is the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word ‘meditation’?

On Sunday night we had a variety of repsponses including ‘old men with beards’, ’silence’, Eastern religions’ and ‘incense’. Interestingly, things that are closely associated with Eastern or Transcendental meditation are those that most readily come to mind.

Eastern meditation is all about disconnection. It is an attempt to empty ones mind and body from everything and everyone in an attemot to become free form the pain and reality of life and enter into the plain of Nirvana. In a culture that is busy and rushed and lifestyles are so hectic that we are literlayy working ourselves to death, this type of meditation has found a new level of popularity and even has identifiable health benefits such as lower blood pressure and stress levels.

But is this something Christians should be involved in? Sort of…

The Bible is quite clear that Christians should meditate and is full of passages and people that mention or involve meditation in some way or another. But it seems that the people who wrote the Bible, and those who first received it, knew exactly what meditation was and how to do it - for nowhere does the Bible say, “This is how you should meditate.” It seems to be a lost art in terms of the spiritual disciplines, but one that is possible for us to relearn and incorporate into our discipleship.

Philippians 4:8 says:

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

This is what Christian meditation is all about. It is not an emptying of our minds, but a filling with the things of God, with a deliberate slowing down in the midst of our busy lives. We can’t help but be shaped by the things we think about - violent criminals often have a history of watching violent movies and playing violent video games. If we fill our minds with the things of God, then God shapes us and we become more like the people we were created to be in the first place.

We can meditate on many things including nature, the events of the world and the events of our lives, but perhaps the most important thing for us to be meditating on is the Bible itself. The Bible is the story of God and how it intersects with the story of the world - as we meditate on what it contains, it infiltrates our own story and God speaks.

How we actually meditate on the Bible is something we learn by doing, but these are some general guidelines:

1. Pray for the Holy Spirit to speak and guide you as you read a passage.
2. Read the passage several times, listening and waiting for what the Spirit might be saying.
3. Ponder a verse or two that grabs your attention. Try to picture what is happening.
4. Put yourself in the situation. What is Jesus thinking? How is Moses feeling? Ask questions about those that are taking part in the story and try to relate to them.
5. Be open to ways in which God might be speaking to you. Write down what you learn and think about them further.
6. Share what you learn with a mentor or accountability group. This will help reinforce God’s word to you

Meditating on the Bible this way means we no longer just read the words, but actually participate in what is going on. We ask oursleves “What is happening here? What are the sounds, the smells and the feelings? Why is my focus drawn to this verse? What do I need to understand? Why do I need to hear this from God? How do I respond? Is there an example for me to follow, a sin to avoid, a command to obey, a promise to claim?”

Like I said, we can talk about meditation forever, but like prayer, the important thing is to do it! So for the rest of the service we engaged in some meditative worship, with six ’stations’ set up around the room.

One was a table with some offering bowls and the story of the widows offering.

Another was a communion table with the bread and juice set up and the story of the last supper on the wall.

Another was a table for prayers of confession with sheets with Psalm 51 printed on them. Our own confessions were written on the back and we burnt them in the big pot.

Another had a number of newspapers for us to meditate on and pray for the events of the world.

Another had large sheets of paper for us to write prayers of thanksgiving for thigns that had happened in our life over the last little while.

And the last had sheets of paper for us to write our own prayer requests that would be taken away and prayed for by the youth team later in the week.

As we moved from table to table, in no particular order, some celtic worship music played gently in the background. The aim was to mediate at each of the different tables on the differnt Bible stories that were on the wall or to read verses of our own choosing in the Bibles provided. It meant that the offering, for example, was no longer something we just routinely did as the plate went by, but something we lingered over, prayed through and meditated on.

And during it all, our hope was that God would speak.

Personally, I found it to be a powerful night. I love this type of worship and find that meditation is one of the disciplines that connects me to God the most. I hope it was the same for others that were there - share your story if you were!

And like always, feel free to ask as many questions as you like…