Ruminating in the rabbit warrens of my mind.
I am still thinking about the scripture that talks about the
renewing of our mind.(Romans 12:2) When I was young, we Pentecostals would
remove our minds from situations, saying rather "that the Holy Spirit will
reveal all things to us", so in essence thinking was an optional extra. I
for one, have never really been comfortable with this process and would rather
believe that the Holy Spirit would guide and lead my thinking and be part of
the thought process, not distinct from it.
This last weekend I was reading the Saturday morning
newspaper, when I came across an article that talked of researches at two universities who have found
that meditation and mindfulness can be very dangerous for our well being. This
in contrast is completely opposite to what the advocates of meditation say. The
researches explained that by emptying the mind and setting the mind to think of
just one thing resulted in increased stress levels and the unleashing in the
mind of deep dark (my words)
anxieties that are more harmful.
For me these modern new age reasoning's have always been a
bit wacky. Meditation encourages us to empty our minds, yet Mindfulness
encourages to think of one particular thing. Surely in my mind this is an oxymoron
that takes us round in circles and never really gets us anywhere.
Once again my Christian beliefs and the work of the Holy
Spirit in my life trumps that of this world, but is now confirmed by non
Christian academic researches as mentioned in the newspaper article. The Hebrew word for meditate is completely
opposite to the rubbish spouted by new age gurus and Buddhists, rather it talks
about thinking about pondering and even speaking it out. It even intimates the
idea of chewing the cud, no mindless emptying of the mind but rather a filling
up with the things of God. Romans 10:17 tells us that faith comes by hearing
and hearing by the word of God. If I am thinking about and speaking Gods word
out loud I am meditating in the way that God wants me to, there is a positive
result, I build my faith. Another added bonus is that the rubbish, those deep
dark anxieties get filtered out, the bible tells me 2Tim 1:7 that "...God
did not give us a spirit of fear but of power and love and a sound mind."
How does all this ruminating help me as a Christian leader?
Well I am convinced that Godly meditation is good for us and is a habit that we
need to get into on a daily basis. It is in our mediation's that we hear from him
and the Holy Spirit guides us to that next best thing that he has in store for us. But I also believe that
the very process of Godly meditation brings about a peace and a strength that
blasts the feelings of depression and anguish that seeks to prevail itself upon
our psyche in this life.
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