Project Discipline: Meditation Part Two
I think part of the reason I always avoided Christian meditation was because I believed something magical was supposed to happen. I am supposed to “feel” the presence of God. But I never did, I would open my Bible to a passage and struggle to remain focused after I read it through.
There must be something wrong with my method I thought to myself. I wondered what I was doing wrong and why I was not growing closer to God. I tried everything, I tried the quiet, I tried music, I tried kneeling, opening my hands to receive…whatever it was I tried it.
I then realized that I don’t have to follow a formula, and it’s OK if I don’t feel anything. It comes, and sometimes I reap the benefits of meditation days, weeks or even months after, and I don’t even realize it. For example, when I am feeling particularly discouraged and Psalm 46 immediately pops into my head…how do I know that one? I have meditated on it. Or when I am filled with joy over a new baby and Psalm 139 comes to my mind and I am reminded to thank the Lord for this miracle. I know that one because I have meditated on it.
Some of my best moments of meditation have been times when I don’t even realize I am doing it, when I prepare for a sermon and I am not thinking about meditation specifically. I allow the words to sink in and they speak to me, and my congregants receive the overflow of what God says to me personally.
Meditation is not something that the average person cannot do, it is attainable for even those who are like me with short attention spans. The point is to allow the word of God to speak to you, to draw you closer to him…even if you don’t feel it happening.
