Meditate: Engaging Body, Mind, Spirit

Why meditate? Actually our brains meditate anytime we stop to think, ponder, reflect, consider, discern. These are activities that allow us to meditate. But when we meditate on the Divine presence we cease working so hard at it and we become open vessels releasing ourselves and receiving God’s gift. We become pliable, moldable, yielded to the work of grace and truth.

In the great prayer book of the Bible, the very first Psalm extols the benefits of meditating on the ways of God,, describing the one who meditates as being like a tree planted along a riverbank, bearing luscious fruit each season without fail. Their leaves never wither, and all they do shall prosper. Wow. Sign me up to be rooted and established, strong, fruitful, lifegiving, flourishing, prospering.

In scripture, the Hebrew word for meditate also translates as ponder, imagine, murmur, growl and roar - like a lion sinking its teeth into a meal, savoring every morsel. Meditation turns something over and over in the mind until it sinks down to feed the soul and nourish the mind. And as someone seeking God in everyday life, we can ponder or meditate on most anything. But meditation isn’t just an external focus of thinking about something and passing judgement on it. It’s taking what crosses our path and intersects with our spirit, our body, and our mind. It’s something that speaks to the inner being, something we can welcome as a tool for wholeness and wellness and becomes the language of prayer.

This is the first of several posts about meditation. So come explore as we meditate through lectio and visio divina, through prayers of imagination, dreams, liminal space, work and play. How are you practicing meditation in your own life? How has it been lifegiving. What are the obstacles that keep you from doing entering into meditation?