Teaching is Important to Meditation

In the last post, I asserted that meditation brought our three levels of being together.

We utilize the intellect and the teaching of the Word so that we might hide the Word in our hearts. Psalm 119:11. Interesting place to keep the Word, in the seat of our emotions, in the place we all acknowledge leads us to trouble, in the one part of our being absolutely subjective!

This is exactly the point! Culture has inculcated within us, including church transmission mechanisms, a perspective that trusts the intellect and disregards the emotions--one full third of our being. Yet our intellect can support the exercise of our hearts in meditation. Our understanding and familiarity with the Word is very important to successful meditation.

Talk of meditation is largely rejected in Protestant Evangelicalism because it does involve the emotions. We suspect our emotions will lead us astray. Hence we don't trust the idea of "Christian" meditation. But if we our honest, meditation is in our Bible.
Consider these OT phrases lifted straight from a Crosswalk.com word search:

meditate in the field
meditate on it (the law) day and night
Meditate in your heart
meditate in His temple
meditate on You
meditate with my heart,
meditate on all Your work
meditate on Your precepts
meditate on Your wonders.
meditate on Your precepts.
meditation before God.
meditation of my heart
Let my meditation be pleasing to Him
O how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day.
I have more insight than all my teachers, For Your testimonies are my meditation.
meditate on Your word
meditate on all Your doings
on Your wonderful works, I will meditate.
Your heart will meditate on terror (a statement attributed to God by the prophet Isaiah.)

Also, Philippians 4:8 doesn't mention meditation but describes what I am appealing for us Christians to do:

4:8
Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure,
whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.

Teaching fills our hearts with the parameters that safely guide long periods of holding an open heart to the spiritual realm. Learning to meditate (muttering to ourselves the Truth -- thanks Terry, commenter on the last post for this very insightful image) opens us to an interaction with the Holy Spirit that is rewarding, comforting and full of instruction on spiritual matters directly from the Lord.

Basically, meditation isn't mystical as in the meaning of mysterious or enigmatic. It is a simple practice which can increase our love for the Father and our sense of His love for us, which then supports a more active love for others. More in the next post.

Why Practice Meditation?

We understand our lives by analyzing, categorizing and decision-making at three levels. We know things from the perspective of our physical life, our cultural life, and our common universal life. The narrowest view involves our personal bubbles--my body, my feelings, my likes, my dislikes, my fears, my dreams and aspirations. A view larger than ourselves is the one shaped by culture. We tend toward ethno-centrism or the view that our way of life culturally may not always be right, but it is the best to be found. Our commonality with other humans is often not fully developed, but all of the human race has some core motivations centered on the emotions: love, hate, anger, sadness, depression, jealousy, pride, fear. These three levels of understanding are the essence of our natural lives. (Notice the three areas of life susceptible to temptation and expressed by the world fallen man has created? The lust of the flesh--the body, its needs and desires; the pride of life--intellect and cultural structures; the emotions--the lust of the eyes and our hearts' imaginations.)

I believe there is a fourth level of understanding, life according to the spirit-birth in Jesus. Living by the spirit, living in the spirit, being spiritual all receive verbal repetitions in Christian exhortations, but what is it?

It is the level of understanding that is illuminated by God. It is above and beyond the physical, cultural or human experience. However, it releases us from none of these levels. Rather, by learning to abide in the Spirit of Christ through understanding the division between soul and spirit (Hebrews 4:12) we become better decision-makers regarding the three natural levels of our experience. Simply, it requires the illumination by God's Spirit within our spirits to develop the fullest maturity and the deepest sense of life as a human. The three levels of understanding that are of the earth only begin to make sense as we approach all levels of earthly knowledge with our knowledge of God in spirit.

Our sense of the Presence of God within us and our ability to live from a position of faith in His divine Presence is the key to maturity as a Christian. I do not propose that meditation is a requirement to facilitate this level of spiritual knowledge and the resulting level of faith. However, I do believe it is a missing element in the lives of many Christians, at least as a deliberate discipline. I think it is useful in developing Christian maturity.

Meditation is a unique Christian discipline which takes place utilizing all three levels of our human experience. Our bodies, our intellect, and our hearts all combine. This unity of being is in itself a strengthening time. As meditation opens one to knowledge of the spirit and of His Spirit, an individual grows in ways teaching alone cannot facilitate.

Meditation's Connection to the Imagination.

I have traveled this line of thinking about meditation in my own life for a practical reason. Teaching, the delivery to my intellect of the meanings of Scripture and doctrines to be understood and followed, was not having the full effect I felt it should. That is, I still found myself behaving in contradictory ways. I didn't understand me, or why I acted the way I did. Likewise, I found this to be true in those around me. People I considered devout would evidence odd opinions or behaviors that I could not reconcile with "living in the spirit of Christ." Reducing such to considerations of maturity was accurate but incomplete. I was most aware, of course, of my own feelings. Honestly, there were times when I knew I was "behaving" like a Christian because it was the socially acceptable thing to do within my sub-culture, the church group. More painfully, as an elder I knew there were moments when people searched me out for my opinion/insight, as if I held some understanding that would help them. I found myself giving rote answers, a "doctrinally" correct intellectual stance and socially correct disposition of our belief system. I truly, deeply wanted to help them; I said what I thought would help, but some place in my heart knew I didn't fully believe everything I said. Or was it that I simply didn't fully comprehend? I lacked understanding. This left me desolate at times and empty. I never doubted God, I doubted me. Later by extrapolation I doubted all of my fellow elders and some of the practices of traditional religion all around me which I had identified as my "theological home", the Evangelical movement.

Please understand that I am not attacking the Evangelical movement. I do not suggest such is wrong. I believe it lacks understanding because it is a product of Western culture. From before the Renaissance, Western thought has developed along a philosophic path that traces itself back to the Greeks. Church scholarship developed and held the lamp of knowledge for Western culture through the Medieval period such that church and culture existed in a symbiotic relationship of sorts. This philosophic path has a practical component through which it meanders, the rational mind. Western culture emphasizes rationality and thereby cuts itself off from the human heart. There have been a few reactions like the Age of Romanticism, but the onward development of a rational explanation of the human experience has never lost steam. The Evangelical movement is both product of this combined history of church and culture and remains a participant today. It does not do so without consequence to its intellectual and spiritual constructs.

Remember my discussion on Christian diversity wherein sociologists define human social experience in terms which I contend reflect the whole human? (Oct. 10 post) This is our three-part being of body, heart, and mind. Western culture focuses primarily on the intellect and secondarily (pop culture in particular) on the body. The Western Christian church preaches there must be a changed heart, but I believe as an institution lacks in its understanding of how the heart affects the whole human. (I cannot here take the time to validate this assertion of mine, maybe another post.)

Our culture has developed a "heart" obsessed with the lust of the eyes. Literature, drama, the visual arts, musical arts and tech media are overrun with imagination applied to expressing the fallenness of the human heart. It isn't just pop culture of the day either. Ever read the lyrics of great operas or pay close attention to the themes in Shakespeare? Western religion's answer to this problem is to preach against lust. This is an intellectual exercise; and from a practical standpoint of the state of the human heart, is an ill-fitting application producing mixed results. In Western culture, we do not understand the effective application of meditation in overcoming our own hearts' vagaries. Consider this quote from scripture:

Psalms 77:3-12
When I remember God, then I am disturbed; When I sigh, then my spirit grows faint. Selah.
You have held my eyelids open; I am so troubled that I cannot speak.
I have considered the days of old, The years of long ago.
I will remember my song in the night; I will meditate with my heart, And my spirit ponders:
Will the Lord reject forever? And will He never be favorable again?
Has His lovingkindness ceased forever? Has His promise come to an end forever?
Has God forgotten to be gracious, Or has He in anger withdrawn His compassion? Selah.
Then I said, "It is my grief, That the right hand of the Most High has changed."
I shall remember the deeds of the LORD; Surely I will remember Your wonders of old.
I will meditate on all Your work And muse on Your deeds.

The author of these words is sorely troubled in heart over his relationship with God, the core relationship of life. His answer is to meditate on God and His work. Of all the words in the Hebrew which can be translated meditate or meditation, they share one common possible meaning. That meaning is muse. Actively, muse can mean in our language to meditate or ponder. Interestingly, another use in our language is drawn from Greek mythology. This use is muse as in "a guiding spirit". Within artistic expressions, to find one's muse means to discover inspiration.

I submit that to meditate as a Christian means to find guidance from the Holy Spirit by filling the eyes of our hearts (requires the faculty of the imagination) not with lustful concepts from the world but with the purity of God Himself. In so doing, we access a source of growth for both our souls and spirits which is of God. Further, this growth will not be stimulated by teaching our minds, the intellect.

I am driving at... Imagination, Part three

One last disclaimer before I delve into developing the "Christian" imagination. I am not suggesting that Christians begin to use the imagination to create alternate realities. That is, I am not suggesting that imaginary products are to be achieved. This is not about being creative and producing an interpretation of Scripture never conceived before. What I am thinking here is not an outcome, it is a process wherein we access the ability to alter the depths of who we are by support found surprisingly in using the faculty of imagination. I also am not suggesting anything which cannot be supported scripturally. Of course, we all knows how that still don't free what I'm saying from subjectivity!!

Ps 19:14
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.

Meditation is an act of focusing on God, deliberately, for an extended time period, with an openness to Him, with an intent to be impacted, and to bring Him pleasure.

Meditation is accomplished using all of our faculties including the imagination.

More in the next post.

Lack of Contentment May Mean a Lack of Imagination

The word for me today is contentment. I get home from work, which has been demanding but rewarding this week, and find an e-mail from an old friend. I am separated from him by distance but our contact is always warm, if somewhat infrequent. I had e-mailed him to let him know I had started the blog and am approaching a personal milestone of which he is aware. Dave emailed me encouragement in his gentle way. He finished his e-mail stating he thought I was a contented man. Perhaps, but there is more to know. I have every reason to be content, though like anyone I suppose, I have to address the content of my thoughts.

Then I check the blog of another old friend, he can be read at Looking for the Long Ride link on the right. He has written his latest blog entry exploring among other things, contentment. I do not find such overlap a coincidence. God is in every aspect of my life, and such circumstances as these described here occur continually in my life. I always accept them without question as God calling my attention to something. This may cause you to question, but I don't anymore. I have seen this proven over and over. It a reason I am content in the Father. His faithfulness to communicate with me never fails.

Last year at work, a colleague lamented, "I want to hear from God, if that's possible." I ached for her. Her Christian tradition has shaped her by liturgy and tradition. Her concept of God is deeply carved but limited by the cut marks of her particular system. It has informed her for years on end how to perceive God, and so she does. The culture she participates in communicates strict boundaries for the structures she must abide in, the symbols she must reflect upon and draw inspiration from, and the conflicts which are hers in the natural.

After we left the church we had been in for 18 years, I visited many local congregations. I was open to the Lord leading me again into the arena of organized groups. On one Sunday, I entered a congregation to discover in attendance there a family whom my wife and I knew from community soccer. The husband was an usher and led me to the pew in which his wife sat. I slid over near her, and we greeted we another. Since I was seeking, and she was "full-time", I led off after the pleasantries with, "So how do you like it here?" She was visibly shaken and turned to me with newly formed tears and spoke of her disappointment and disillusionment with this particular system. I did my best to sound supportive and remain neutral. I began imagining what could cause such a reaction. She was a chronic complainer, though her example on the sidelines of soccer disproved that muse. She did not clearly understand her circumstances and was overwhelmed by life, though her respected position in a local public school undercut that possibility. Her true feelings erupted when I touched on the sore spot of her life. That clicked with me as the truth of that moment.

At another prominent evangelical church in our community a week or so later, after I had been handed a "Prospective Member" card to fill out in Sunday School. (I filled this in with the questions "Why do you automatically put me in the category of prospect?" and, "If I am in Jesus like you, am I not part of you already?") During the Sunday School class itself, a regular member (some one with far more status within this group than most) delivered a scalding message of condemnation against anyone who was not actively witnessing for the purpose of expanding the roles of the church. Hmmm...it was clear from these two social mechanisms, the card and the message, that the church was focused on numbers. Additionally, the abject disparity between Romans 8:1 and the empty-hearted scolding I had just heard demonstrated this group 's spiritual lack.

What did these three people have in common? My takes is a lack of contentment because of a failed or inactive spiritual imagination.

Imagination 1A (?)

In the comments section of my last blog post, Craig V. suggests that delineating thinking from the imagination might be helpful. He mentions how imagination is readily accepted generally, but the fruit of the Arts in particular is held somewhat suspect.

I understand. Well it should be suspect. The imagination has been used to promote much ungodliness in our world, and not just in the Arts. How about in education and philosophy in particular? Consider Foucault...no don't, he is nihilistic and hedonistic, but he is a good example of the imagination run amuck. Yet, I believe that when the Father redeems us, He lifts our whole being out of the miry clay, including our imagination, by virtue of the new creature referenced in 2Co 5:17. The imagination is part of our being. My renewed mind, and yours, has an imagination. This series of posts is about how to use the imagination in pursuit of a deepening relationship with our Father and His Son.

In my last post, I attempted to establish how the imagination is a part of us in ways beyond creative applications. Imagination is not simply about bringing creativity in arts, math and science applications. Our imaginations are a running sub-program of every one's thinking. I write this series of posts to encourage brethren to recognize the fullness of the whole being we are and learn, as commenter Josiah noted, "Our freedom to imagine is thus found in the charge to bring every thought into obedience to Christ."

Imagination and the Spiritual Walk. Part 1

I imagine some are wondering why I use the word imagine in the sub-title of this blog. I think imagine is an important word that many of us don't fully understand in spiritual terms. I would be among those, of course. I claim no special knowledge here. But, I have been working on this one because it's important to me, and as a result, I have some thoughts to share.

Think about thinking. How do you do it? What do you recognize as thinking when you do it; or what do you reject as feeling when you want thinking, but all the words in the brain are pouring forth rapidly out of your heart? What do you do when your thinking fails and you don't have an answer to the problem at hand?

Pr 4:7
The beginning of wisdom is: Acquire wisdom; And with all your acquiring, get understanding.

Hebrew word for understanding = discernment; act; faculty; object

Notice the variants of meaning include discernment, insight into what is going on around you, and faculty, the ability to do so. We all have the faculty to understand at some level. Commonly we humans, cleansed and dirty, work at gaining some degree of understanding about the natural world around us. This is often motivated by selfishness, which produces mixed results in gaining discernment of the natural world, and no results at gaining discernment of spiritual matters. (I will reference the following concept often, and so begin here.) Those who are not born of the spirit of Jesus can never gain discernment of spiritual truth, except by direct revelation from the Father at His discretion. Without birth in Christ's Spirit, one's faculty to understand is locked completely within the paradigm of the material world. True enough the material world is under the dominion of Satan. Knowledge gained through him can provide illusions of separation from the material; but as he is the Father of Lies, he cannot give one separation in Truth. I digress, that is probably a post of its own.

So this post is about using our faculty of understanding to increase what we discern about spiritual matters. (I feel as if I am about to plunge my hand into boiling water, but here goes!)

I think Christians need to do two things.

1. Be honest that the imagination is part of everyday life all the time. We need NOT be afraid of it.
For example:

• We engage in "fantasies" of how the conversation with our boss about a raise is going to go. This use of imagining interactions with others repeats, so ...
• If we do not have a calculator and do any math in our head, yes we are thinking; but we imagine the numbers visually; or we imagine their values calculating...one genius recently interviewed on television explained that numbers take on geometric shapes in his head and he "sees them combining" according to the function at hand.

Imagination is a function of the thinking processes in our heads. They go together. We think in concepts that are imagined, that is we use the faculty not to be confused with create an imagined object. What's more, I believe the heart is directly linked to the imagination. Our minds translate the feelings of our hearts into the words we speak and physical actions we choose by using our imagination.

2. Gain understanding of what purposes imagination can serve in gaining spiritual understanding of the Father. Apologies to whomever wrote this for not citing you as the source, but I read it back in the early nineties and have no clue where I did. This is stuck in the cobbed files of my brain, though: (this is not a direct quote just a remembrance)

Our development follows a course and our lives are a recurring function of our development. Feelings first (babies have "no" verbal constructs, though research indicates that fetal hearing allows the basis of language to develop in utero) then thoughts, thoughts lead to imaginations, imaginations spawn desires, desires direct actions, actions become habits, habits develop into lifestyle patterns and lifestyle patterns are one's destiny.

I submit breaking free from the natural existence into spiritual birth is the spiritual experience all humans need. Period. This occurs when the Father in His mercy reveals Jesus as Messiah to someone and they choose to so trust Him. However, walking out one's salvation in fear and trembling employs our faculties of understanding and the discernment so gained. There should be a continual gain in the mind and heart in these areas as one grows spiritually, I think...or am I just imagining this? Perhaps we can understand and grow in the utilization of our imaginations as part of walking with the Lord.

Yes, I knew the word "imagination" would cause some folks to pause and experience feelings, possibly even negative decisions about my blog. That's OK. Yes, I also knew it might stir in some a questioning of whether or not I was a New-Ager, full of double-speak about the word "Christ." Oh well. Such is how the spirits spar in the Wild Wood. It cannot be avoided.

We must sort through "spirit" as Christians and understand what we can. While some things will remain unknown to us, the Father knows all, and we are safe in Him.

Next up: thoughts about being a Christian and connecting with the value of our imaginations before the Living Father. For those who feel a tug of concern about the topic, I'll tell you the "safety net" I will talk about in conclusion, so that you know it is place. The Word, the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and heart to heart fellowship are together our safety net in this. We must all be grounded in realizing we are connected to the material world by our bodies. We are not creatures of the imagination. We are creatures of earth who experience a God-given imagination. Some of us are reborn. The imagination is available to common humans and is a tool He provided us. Our new birth renews our mind. Is the imagination exempt?