Meditate on these things...

This has been a busy and somewhat fatiguing week of teaching, an expenditure of energy, as we worked through our Inroduction to Missions with a group of Congolese men.  Of course, we too have received rich blessing as we have discussed together many mission themes.  But today is a quieter day.  A day to put order into our much neglected home.  A day for reordering and refreshing the mind and soul too.  As I turned to some readings to stimulate my reflection, interestingly, in two separate sources that I have been working through, the same theme was spoken of, that of meditation.  What is this often misunderstood and highly neglected activity, particularly in Western Christianity, that God calls us to so many times in His word?  Joyce Huggett says "Christian meditation involves, not emptiness, but fullness.  It means being attentive to God."   Attentive to Him. Not distracted or pulled into a million directions.   Foster states that the Hebrew words translated by "meditate" have multiple meanings and implications : "To mutter, to moan, to whisper, to reflect, to rehearse, to muse and even to coo like a dove."  He goes on to suggest that "the biblical stress (of mediation) is always on ethical change, character transformation, obedience to the word of the Lord."   In other words, it's about "hearing and obeying".  So to contemplate God's majesty, His holiness, His beauty is not enough unless that rumination pushes me toward some effect in my life, in my character, in my way of relating to that majestic, holy and beautiful God.  How often have I studied God's word or intellectually grasped a doctrine without being touched to the core of my being, revolutionized from the inside out?  Perhaps it is in part because I haven't always given myself to the musing, moaning and cooing that God knows is an integral part of growing up and into Him. 

"For I want you to understand what really matters, so that you may live pure and blameless lives until Christ returns".  (Phil 1:10)   "Now displine always seems painful rather than pleasant at the time, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it."  (Heb 12:11)

Ah!   Moan.  The soul respite.  Whisper.  The peace of mind.  Rehearse. The calmness of spirit. Muse.  The fruitful abiding life. Coo. Meditate on these things ...