Jesus Doesn't Have Laryngitis!

Part One of the sermon series on “Livin’ the Dream” was on meditation. Below is a recap:

Despite all the fame and cool stuff the Beatles had, they realized that material success was not enough to fill the void in their lives. So they went to India to meet with Maharashi Mahesh Yogi – the developer of Transcendental Meditation – to hope to find a way to fill this void. As a result of the Beatles popularity and their interest in meditation other movie stars, musicians, and millionaires sought out this guy. In the process, meditation became popular. And so when we think of meditation, we usually think of the Eastern forms of meditation, where people try to empty their minds and detach themselves from the world.

As a matter of fact, if you stop the average person on the street and ask them about meditation, more than likely they’ll talk about sitting cross-legged, reciting a mantra, and attempting to enter a state of "nothingness." Unfortunately it seems that many Christians are convinced that meditation is bad because they identify it with New Age practices such as Yoga, the occult, eastern religions, and smoking pot.

Interesting enough, even though the Maharashi started Transcendental Meditation, he wasn’t the first to meditate. Matter of fact it’s a biblical idea. The word "meditate" or "meditation" appears about 58 times in the Bible. In Christian meditation, rather than emptying our minds like some of the Eastern Religions teach, we fill our minds with God ALONE and focus on Him. Really, meditation is simply a deeper form of prayer. For instance, most people define prayer as talking to God. Meditation can be defined as listening to God.

As early in the Scriptures as Genesis 24:63 we're told that Isaac “went out to the field to meditate.” And then the Psalm that introduces the entire Psalter (book of Psalms), calls everybody to copy and mimic the “blessed person” who meditates on the Scriptures day and night!

Is this something we do? I mean, as I read the Scriptures, it seems as though all the great saints of the Bible meditated! They not only talked to God (prayed), but they listened to God (meditated) and waited for God to speak. Eli, the priest, knew enough about listening to God that He advised Samuel to quit waking him up in the middle of the night and just listen to God. Other prophets learned to discern the voice of God – Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and tons more, all listened for God. But please hear this, God didn’t speak to these prophets because they had special abilities. God spoke to these people because they were willing to listen.

I know we are all busy! Even Jesus, while involved in an incredibly busy ministry, often withdrew to a quiet and lonely place to meditate! And so the beauty of Meditation is that in the chaotic society that we live in, where we are constantly moving on to the next thing, the discipline of meditation is an invitation for us to slow down and hear what God is saying. Jesus doesn’t have laryngitis! He is alive and among us as our Priest to forgive us, our Prophet to teach us, our King to rule us, and our Shepherd to guide us. But here’s the thing, we won’t know any of this stuff if we won’t be quiet for just one minute and listen!