Meditation

I was an early Saturday monring cartoon watcher as a child. It was before there were channels devoted to children's programming 24/7.  I memorized the catchy public service announcements like "You are what you eat from your head down to your feet."  I'm a fan of catchy jingles because I can remember them, and if they happen to also carry something substantitive with them, all the better.  "You become what you worship" is another little saying I heard once, and it somewhat repeats that nutrition endorsement.  Whatever it is that we fill up on has a great deal of shaping power, figuratively and literally!

My eyes stay open through the watches of the night, that I may meditate on your promises. Ps. 119:148

Everyday I will praise you and extol your name forever and ever.  Ps. 145:2

There is a consistent connection made throughout all of Scripture between works and words.  God spoke creation into existence.  He explains the Gospel and works it out and provides words to declare His works.  His people declare His works to each other and to generations.  We do this too and all the time.  When we see something out of the ordinary, we want to tell people.  When something consumes my waking thoughts, it is hard for me not to share it.

I too meditate and speak.  The thing is, its not really a descriminating process.  I joke about the fact that I have no private thoughts, which can be both helpful and exhausting to my husband.  Its helpful because I am certainly not harboring any grievances, but the exhausting part is self-explanatory.  But either way, I am going to talk to whoever is in front of me about whatever is most on my mind, and whatever is most on my mind is going to shape the way I approach my days and my relationships too.

Even among Christians whose Christianity relies heavily upon their working "so that" God can work, there is still a strong belief that the goal of our lives is that others would "see Jesus" more prominently than me.  While Biblical meditation involves a rehearsing of all the wonders and glories of God, I do other mediation far more often: its called anxiety.  As Mark Davis from Park Cities Presbyterian Church said, the meditation of anxiety is the rehearsal over and over again of what might go wrong, how my greatest fears may become reality, what people might assume of me or say or think or do to me.  This meditation on my circumstances begins to shape my heart and even my view of God, so that not only do I become the center figure in my story rather than Jesus, but I effectively reverse the life-giving order God has provided in the person and work of Jesus.  Because of His completed work, Who He is begins to shape my heart and perspective on my circumstances.

For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. 2 Cor. 4:5

I have been preaching myself far more than Jesus lately because I have been meditating on my works, my ways, my plans and purposes far more than on His.  He is my Father, which is one of the many truths He repeats over and over in His word.  Until I meditate on His active Fatherhood, until I rehearse over and over His particular love for His children, His strength, His provision, His shelter and His intimacy, I don't realize how deeply I need to repent of my self-reliance, self-protection and self-promotion.  Because of the completed work of Jesus, in person, on earth in real time, I can be certain of all the words He has spoken upon which I can meditate and find rest.  My safety, my provision and my very life have been given a home in the One who laid the foundations of the earth and apart from whom not a hair can fall from my head without His consent.  I have a bridegroom who is not waiting in a non-plussed way for me to come to Him down the aisle but who is running down the aisle to me!  Oh may I begin to meditate more on the glories of His works, the beauty of His heart and become absorbed with Him until there is room for nothing else, and therefore life for everything else.