I am so sad that I had to miss the first training, but I've been thinking about you oodles and can't wait to meet you all! I sadly had a final, and trust me that I would have done anything to get out of that lil' guy and come up to the weekend with you hahaa. But anyway...
Meditation is something that I have tried to work on
recently, and especially during lent. Many people choose to take something out
of their lives during lent in order to focus on the time leading up to Easter,
but instead I choose to add things in that will enhance my relationship with
the Lord. This year, I focused on meditation and more “quiet” quiet time. I am
the type of person who rarely shuts off her mind, and this often comes between
my relationship with God and my ability to hear what He is telling me. To be
quite honest, I always dreaded the quiet game as a kid, yoga classes because
the teachers shunned talking and laughter, the thought of being forced into
silence in order to “focus on thoughts”, and anything that involved shutting
down activities to focus in on the beauty of silence and what we can gain from
that. Since college, however, I have come to see the importance of clearing one’s
mind, shutting down activity, and merely LISTENING. As Isaiah 53:6 says, we all
have gone astray, and how on earth are we supposed to straighten that path if
the Type A personality in us all never stops to listen and straighten that path
again? Yeah the truth of that message and “re-straightening” may be hard for us
to hear/realize, but God wants the best for us and is trying to show us the way
to that best path. We just need to listen and follow to that “green pasture”
and “quiet water”.
I really like Revelation 3:20 because it really gives me a
vivid visual picture. I am a highly visual person, and I just have this image
of God patiently and excitedly waiting at a door with a prepared meal, waiting
for anyone who quietly knocks on that door. I can see him running across the
house to any small sound that resembles a knock in order to quickly fling open
the door and let in anyone waiting so that He may eat, share his food, and
spend time in the knocker’s company.
Keep on having a sunny week amongst all this rain!
-Allyson Moeller
Thanks for your post, Allison! My challenge as well Is actively pursuing time to quite down, sit still, and listen! I share in those feelings with you! What is encouraging is that our faith has many more elements to it than we often remember. Mediation is one I often forget. But what an amazing new challenge and journey the Lord can bring us on when we challenger ourselves to pursue meditation as another way to connect with Jesus! That is encouraging for me! Thanks for challenging me in that!
ReplyDeleteit's hard for me to shut my mind too haha - lately i've been trying to shut my mind/pray/meditate in the shower and inbetween classes; i used to listen to my ipod on the way from class to class, but i've been listening to it less and trying to listen to God more!
ReplyDeletei love your visual reference to God waiting with a meal! i'm visual as well, and i think it might be true that a lot of us are type a personalities - um, by the way, are those symbols at the end supposed to be a secret language or something, or is it just showing up weird on my computer lol