Meditation continued...

Hey everybody,

So I'm finally getting back to Richard Foster's book "Celebration of Discipline." Again, the first discipline he delves into is meditation. He stresses the point that Christian meditation is nothing at all like what we think of in terms of what Eastern religions teach. In fact, he says, "the two ideas stand worlds apart. Eastern meditation is an attempt to empty the mind; Christian meditation is an attempt to fill the mind."

He gives example after example of how to actually delve into meditation and what that means as a Christian. In one section where he's talking about how to meditate on scripture, he gives this quote from Deitrich Bonhoeffer, "...just as you do not analyze the words of someone you love, but accept them as they are said to you, accept the Word of Scripture and ponder it in your heart, as Mary did. That is all. That is meditation."

I had never even heard of Bonhoeffer until I read this book a few years ago. If you've never heard of him, his story is amazing... How he fought against the Nazis is one of the most inspiring stories of WWII. But I'm getting off subject. That's another story for another time.

My point is, Bonhoeffer's quote is the root of it. Do I ponder God's word in my heart? Heck, the better question is, do I even read God's word! It drives me nuts when I find excuses for days on end not to spend time to read my Bible and meditate on what God is trying to tell me. The reason it ticks me off is I know how much better I am as a husband, father, son, brother...you name it when I do take the time to do those things.
Ken