According to Wikepedia, meditation can be defined as "concentration in which the attention has been liberated from restlessness and is focused on God."I was watching a news show in which a panel was discussing the potential use of meditation for kids with attention deficit disorders. It was actually a pretty controversial topic with lots of passionate debate. There were testimonials that insisted kids could be taken off of all medications if they were taught to meditate instead.
Under the influence of Christianity, I have always considered meditation something of a "dangerous" pass time. In the seventies it surfaced as an expression of Eastern religion and so we in Christianity immediately put it on the taboo list. As I was watching this news show however, meditation fell back into my hands as something I have needed all along. I don't mean to reach some kind of subconscious state of Nirvana nor to connect to the universe. Like the kid with ADHD, I need to meditate to get focused so I can function.
All of us are surrounded by people who need advice or decisions to be made in our own lives. We live in an overwhelming world. Too busy, too much demanded of us and too much to juggle. I guess you could say we have cultural Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. So much stimuli coming at us we become disorganized in the handling of it. Not you? Ok. It's just me. Anyway...
My prayer time is often something of a monologue, like something from Gone With The Wind; "God as my witness, I will never be hungry again!" or some such drama. I feel like I have to help my hurting friends figure out what to do. I have to navigate my way through college and career decisions with my kids and decide if I should return to school. Frankly, I am fried. I don't know what anybody should do about anything ever! I keep asking God for answers to the questions of the day and find myself the next day with the same list only it's a little bit smudged from my sweaty desperate fists.
Then I saw this news program and decided, that's what I'm gonna do! I'm gonna meditate! That's right, I am going to start meditating. I am going to empty out the bubbling mess in my gut and let go of that list and just be quiet. I have given this advice and now I have figured out how to take it. I am going to be quiet and just let God fill me up. I am going to consider his love, his goodness and his wisdom. I am going to mull over the miracle of Sunday morning breezes and the way my kids knew just how to snuggle into my arms when they were toddlers. I'm going to unload the what now? questions so I can notice when I wake up at two a.m. that my husband is holding my hand in his sleep instead of thinking about the problems I went to sleep thinking about.
I don't have a single answer folks. I don't know if you should stay in your marriage. I don't know how to reach your kids. I don't know what will happen with your finances. I don't know what the heck I'm doing over here.
So I'm just going to take some of that prayer time that feels like I'm wringing a wet rag trying to force answers to fall out of heaven and shut up. I am going to meditate. I think that in understanding God and his ways, the answers will come softly.
Psalm 119:15
I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways.
6 comments:
I think that's something we should all do every now and then ... "shut up" and let God do all the talking! Does this mean you're not going to give advice and/or write on your blog ;)? This societal ADHD all began when the big bad world got too big and bad that parents had to put leashes on their kids ... teens. No more roaming the countryside on a summer's afternoon freestyle to get out one's energy. Too bad the creeps squished our creativity ... and too bad parents ended up divorced breaking their kids hearts.
Dear Sara...I just came to tell you that Dad got home a few hours ago.
When I was talking to him on the phone, he told me that he will have to go back for the operation.
He is on a waitng list, probably he will have it in the fall , but he could have it sooner if there are cancellations.
I told him that maybe he is not as bad as he thought because if he was Sara, wouldn't they take his car lisense away?
I will be back later to read your post...Love Terry
AMEN!! We should all do this regularly! and you are SO right...none of really know anything about what anyone should do or decide including ourselves, most everything is completely out of our hands anyway... I know I fall off the wagon...but a steady diet of quietness before the Lord..just what the doctor ordered
Ohmmmm
I have been meditating-learning to be still(er) and quiet(er).
how'bout that coffee??
Dear Sara..I have finally got back here to read your post.
You know I guess meditation is alright as long as you don't empty your mind like they used to tell you to do.
I think that it is so important to keep your mind full of the Lord!
Psalm 1:2..."But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law does he meditate day and night."...Love Terry
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