\n<\/a> calm me down.\u201d But I was also secretly thinking how practicing meditation would make me sound extremely hard-core spiritual.<\/p>\n\u201cOkay,\u201d said I. \u201cHow do I start?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHere\u2019s how you do it,\u201d my spiritually superior friend directed. \u201cYou find a quiet place, sit in a chair, like this, close your eyes and think of a \u2018God-word,\u2019 like Peace. Surrender. Glory. <\/i>Or something that stands out from your Bible reading. Repeat that word over and over, and here\u2019s the hard part: you cannot let your mind stray to any other thoughts.\u201d<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve never meditated like that before, although I do try to find a quiet place from time to time, first thing in the morning, to read a passage from the Bible and possibly even to spend a few minutes praying. But praying is difficult because my mind tends to go all over the place, just like he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cDear Jesus, Lord in heaven, I pray for my daughter, that you would give her safe travels as she leaves for that school ski trip, and that you would help her to become a strong, fine, young Christian woman who remains chaste and \u2013 Wait! today is the meeting with the attorneys about the joint-venture! Lord, I pray that it goes well! Hmmm, I hope Barker isn\u2019t there. He\u2019s such an idiot. Um . . I wonder what time it is? Geez, I better get going if I want to get Starbucks before work . . .\u201d<\/em><\/p>\nThere are just too many stray thoughts bumping around in my little head.<\/p>\n
Most of us Western Christians think of prayer in terms of a more active thing, like we want to get something accomplished with God. Meditation, on the other hand, is more like going blank and just listening to God rather than telling him what you want him to do or what you think of him. We\u2019re just not used to that.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve been steady at it, three or four times each week. Overall, it\u2019s been a pleasant opportunity to calm myself, focus on a characteristic or quality of God, and suck up some peace of mind for a little while. But no major messages from God, per se.<\/p>\n
Until yesterday.<\/p>\n
The word I chose to meditate on yesterday was \u201cSurrender.\u201d<\/p>\n
I must admit that I have always been a bit suspicious of the concept of surrendering to God. It\u2019s not like I\u2019m on Christian-zombie autopilot with God pulling all the switches for me. I am in the game, sleeves rolled up, tapping my instincts and experience as I make decisions all day long. I don\u2019t look for signs of God\u2019s approval jumping out behind every corner. It\u2019s not like I\u2019m thinking about whether or not God wants me to do this or that. I\u2019m just living. I\u2019m just being, and getting on with my day.<\/p>\n
So. I\u2019m about five minutes into my morning meditation, focusing on the word \u201cSurrender.\u201d And probably to be honest with you, in the back of my mind at some subterranean subconscious level I was still asking God, \u201cWhat is the deal with surrendering? What does that even mean?<\/i> What do you want from me?<\/i> \u201d<\/p>\n
And then, very quietly, out of nowhere, this thought just passed over me like a warm blanket on a freezing cold night:<\/p>\n
Surrender doesn\u2019t mean giving up. It means engaging completely and fully in your life.<\/strong><\/p>\nThat was it. That concept, not exactly in words, but that idea, emerged unassumingly and then proceeded to fully establish itself in my thoughts. It stepped into the room, took a quick look around, and dropped its bags to the floor, saying, \u201cChild, I ain\u2019t goin\u2019 nowhere!\u201d<\/p>\n
And then I knew<\/i>. It was like an epic shift was taking place in the tectonic plates of my spiritual topography. All of the interior wheels and gears that make up the apparatus of my consciousness clicked over a couple of notches, and in an instant changed my entire outlook on life.<\/p>\n
A flood of insights started surging through my mind, connecting a life\u2019s worth of events, circumstances, decisions, attitudes, aspirations, and consequences. Surrender is the opposite of giving up. It\u2019s giving in\u2014to who you are<\/i>. It\u2019s not passive; it\u2019s active. But I have to trust in God for the outcome. That\u2019s the hitch. And that\u2019s the mystery.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Here is an excerpt from my e-book, \u201cAt Work as it is in Heaven: 25 Ways to Re-imagine the Spiritual Purpose of Your Work.\u201d A friend suggested I start meditating. He made it sound so easy and fun. And I said, \u201cWell, yes, that might help calm me down.\u201d But I was also secretly thinking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1878,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[447,677],"class_list":["post-5598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spirituality","tag-medidation","tag-surrender"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a>A friend suggested I start meditating.<\/p>\n