SCRIPTURE: Psalm 19: 14 (CEB) – larger reading: Psalm 19
Let the words of my mouth
and the meditations of my heart be pleasing to you, LORD, my rock and my
redeemer.
STORY:
From the little devotional material, Daily Bread, comes the insight: The following illustration from A
Primer on Meditation points out what happens when the mind is directed and
focused on one thing: "M.A. Rosanoff, long associated with Thomas Edison,
had worked futilely for over a year to soften the wax of phonograph cylinders
by altering their chemical constitution. The results were negative. Rosanoff
relates how he mused night after night trying to 'mentally cough up' every
theoretical and practical solution. 'Then it came like a flash of lightning. I
could not shut waxes out of my mind, even in my sleep. Suddenly, through
headache and daze, I saw the solution. The first thing the next morning, I was
at my desk; and half an hour later I had a record in the softened wax
cylinder...This was the solution! I learned to think waxes...waxes...waxes, and
the answer came without effort, although months of thought had gone into the
mental mill.'"
OBSERVATION:
Our minds, like our lives,
are cluttered with “stuff”… tons of stuff… layers of stuff… “collectibles” of
sorts… relics from the past… just plan ordinary stuff… stuff that demands
attention… requires a dusting off… just plain unadulterated stuff. And oh my,
how this “stuff” weighs us down.
Such is the case with some of
our faith “stuff”. It is ideas that we have carried since our earliest days of
elementary thinking. It made sense once, but does little to assist us along on
our spiritual journey. It is about as important to our faith development as
flannel graphs are to the teaching children today. And yet, we hold on to them.
Lent is an important time in
our spiritual journey. It has been a historical time of sorting out ones
faith... to bring out all the “stuff” from our closets and down from the
shelves… to lay it side-by-side out on the table for a long contemplative look.
May I suggest that as all
this “old” thinking lays before us we allow it to become the focus for our
meditation during these 40-days. Choose just one idea and zero in on it.
Meditate. Contemplate. Turn it over. Look at from various positions. And try to
hear what God is really saying to you. Does this idea help or hinder? Put it
through the wringer or the “mental mill” of our spiritual being. Move on to the
next idea when we really feel that God is through with us on this particular issue.
Some of us will only get to
one or two ideas, while others will fully address most of the “stuff” on the
spiritual table. It really depends on how good we are at listening to God speak
in the silence.
PRAYER:
And so our spiritual journey
begins. Easter will be here before we know it. May we not waste these days with
business as usual. Help us to center in on you.
HINT: Suggested reading during Lent: “Voices of Silence:
The Lives of the Trappists Today” by Frank Bianco
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