Break Free of The Trance
We're hardwired to scan. We're grabbing our information on the run. We gobble down our fast food, check our e-mail, see what's on hulu, check out You Tube, drive to work while texting, come home to even more of the same, and crash, exhausted, to bed. I dare you to stop. Download your self from the Wi-Fi.
First Thing
First Thing: Print this post out. Now. Get a physical copy into your hands. There's several reasons for this. But just do it.
How To Read Meditatively
1. Clear Out The Noise: Get in your quiet spot. Don't have one? Make one. Get away from the distractions that will hijack your ability to focus. Now, take a few deep breaths, to clear your spirit. When you've worked this for a while, you immediately go to step 3. Life isn't a linear progression. It's a relational one.
2. Face Your Conflict: If you're feeling inner conflict, realize that conflict is always about change. Conflict means something that has been trampled, clogging up the springs of life in your heart. It's time to go against the false flow. It's time to clean out the wellsprings of life and get things running again. Especially if your inner flow is an adrenaline rush into a brick wall. Conflict can simply be unforgiveness, in which case, it's helpful to remember three things to say outloud, "I release you, I forgive you, I send you love." It takes practice.
For most of us, we have to slay our dragons daily, before God can do the impossible in our hearts. Paul put it simply, 'I die daily, that I might live to Christ.' Our real conflict is surrender.
3. All Words Are Vessels: Empty words slowly empty the life out of us. While on the other hand, when Jesus says, "The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life," that's what they are: brimming with spirit and life.
So, speak Jesus words to yourself. And read them, in the depths of your heart. 'Taste and see,' the spirit and the life. Let them engage and transform you...'from the inside out.'
There's a 'mutual dwelling' in meditative reading that's radically transformational.
Insight: There are 9 people tapping on their smart phones in a waiting room as I write this. You can learn to 'clear out the noise' anywhere and at any time with practice. Jesus lived life on the fly. Not in some quiet holy place. He was the holy place. You can be that too. The key: mutual dwelling. Now you're on the way.
Top Photo Credit: gwilmore
