What does it mean to meditate?

Everyone knows! Just ask the high school student. Cramming for a school test is a form of meditation or concentrated thinking. Working on a difficult problem for the boss is another form of meditation or concentrated thinking.

Worrying is perhaps the best example of all. Worry consumes us in the same way that meditation does.

Arguments often lead to undesired meditation. Two men disagreed on a mundane subject; the disagreement turned into a vicious argument. Afterward, one man said about the other, “I am now living rent free in his head.” The expression, “Get out of my mind” is an affirmation that such a condition exists for many.

Richard Foster explains biblical meditation in this manner: “My suggestion is you take a single event, or a parable, or a few verses, or even a single word and allow it to take root in you. Seek to live the experience, remembering the encouragement of Ignatius of Loyola to apply all our senses to our task. Smell the sea. Hear the lap of water along the shore. See the crowd. Feel the sun on your head and the hunger in your stomach. Taste the salt in the air. Touch the hem of his garment.

“…Always remember that we enter the story not as passive observers, but as active participants. Also remember that Christ is truly with us to teach us, to heal us, to forgive us. Alexander Whyte declares, ‘with your imagination anointed with holy oil, you again open your New Testament. At one time, you are the publican: at another time, you are the prodigal…at another time, you are Mary Magdalene: at another time, Peter in the porch…Till your whole New Testament is all over autobiographic of you.’” (Celebration of Discipline, pp. 29-30)

Who will you be in today’s meditation? Where will you be? What will happen to you? And, last, NOT HOW will the story end but how SHOULD the story end if God receives glory from your story?

My eyes are awake before the watches of the night,
    that I may meditate on your promise. Psalm 119:148

Tom Swartzwelder

Sep 4, 2024 – On September 3, 2024, Tom Swartzwelder completed the race that God had set before him. He is now with Jesus, the author and finisher of his faith.’

Hebrews 12:1-2A

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

He provides practical how-to-do-ministry resources for the disciples of Jesus Christ at http://www.godsgreenhouse.net. Tom’s latest book is “God Speaks–Today!”