Chosen

OK, you can concentrate on your breathing. That’s a good way to slow yourself down, to restore calm, to quieten down.

But isn’t it kind of empty to just focus on your breathing – in, out, in, out?

One of the major UK newspapers carried an article on the weekend about the place meditation has in contemporary corporate environments, where many executives encourage their staff to take a break and – no, not have a KitKat (a British ad for a certain chocolate biscuit/cookie) – sit still, breathe deep, and meditate.

It mentioned TM. It mentioned just focusing on the breathing in, breathing out. It talked of emptying yourself. Of clearing your mind, and of that emptiness bringing refreshment.

It didn’t mention Christian meditation. No wonder. For too long the church has shied away from mentioning that meditation is one of the spiritual disciplines of Christians down through the centuries. People naturally associate meditation with the eastern religions, but it is orthodox Christian practice as well.

But Christian meditation is not about emptying your mind. It's about filling it with a growing knowledge of God. Not knowledge about God – for that you can just read your Bible or other commentaries or books. But a knowledge of God – an understanding deep within your being of just who he is. It’s about filling your mind with Truth so that you can recognize Lies when you hear them.

It's about reading a short section of Scripture, and reading it again and again, slowly, thoughtfully, until it's in your memory and in your very being for recollection throughout the day.

 

I’ve been filling my mind today with God’s words from the book of Isaiah, chapter 43. Just how fantastic are these words? “You have been chosen to know me, believe in me, and understand that I alone am God. There is no other God – there never has been and there never will be. I, yes I, am the Lord, and there is no other Saviour.”

Wow. You have been chosen. 

If you’ve ever applied for a job, entered a contest, filled in an application for a university, you will have had a period of waiting while you were longing to have those words communicated to you: you have been chosen. 

You didn’t have to apply for this. You don’t have to measure up. You don’t have to have attained a certain standard of anything. God says – “You have been chosen to know Me.”

When I chew that thought over, much like a cow chews her cud, all the negatives which may have crowded my day drain away and I am at peace. What does anything else matter?

God has chosen me. And you. To know him. Forever.

Wow.

A Wise Woman

Proverbs 14:1 describes what a wise woman does. She builds her house.

That doesn’t necessarily mean a physical house, but may refer to her life. The second half of that verse says that a foolish woman tears hers down with her own hands.

I’ve been thinking about that. Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about how you can change the physiology of your brain. I’ve been thinking about it in terms of the Bible, changing the paths of thought so the default is always Godly. There was a program on tv the other night which examined the same subject but without the God element – just showing the way that we can change our thinking through some deliberate exercises we undertake. We can change from being negative to positive in our thinking.

So back to the wise woman. The way to build my life on God is day by day, setting aside time to read and study Scripture and pray. Brick by brick, my life will become the life God wants me to live. That is a wise choice to make.

But many times I stray from that. I wouldn’t say I’m actually tearing down my house. I’m not reading dirty books or watching violence or pornography. But I’m not building. And that reminds me of Don’s building project at the back of our house.

It’s a ‘steading’ – ‘barn’ – which we have planning permission to transform into a self-catering flat upstairs, and Don’s workshop and store room downstairs. Only Don has been trying to do it himself for a decade, and the walls are not yet built as high as they need to go. He’s not been tearing it down, but it’s been static. 

We can’t rent it out. He can’t put his tools in there. The rain still pours in.

My life can easily become static. Half-finished. Which is no use to anyone. It’s not even attractive. 

Yesterday I decided to make a fresh attempt at building. Twenty minutes a day is all it takes, according to the tv program; twenty minutes of meditation (on the program it was meditating on your breathing, but I am meditating on a verse of the Bible) can change your mind. Transform your neurological pathways. Give you a new default mode.

Build you a new house. I’m going for it. Again. I hope to be faithful in keeping it up. Then I might almost be a wise woman. (...not ‘old’...)