Meditation and Observing the Sabbath
June 10, 2007 by Laura | Trackback URI
Last week, my church offered a sermon about observing the Sabbath: Bored to Death Life. The constant bombardment we undergo in our society - news, entertainment, constant activity - has deprived us of the ability to just sit quietly. We’ve lost the ability to meditate - not in the cultish “ooohhmmm” way, but to just sit quietly and focus our attention on the Lord. As the sermon reminds us, we surround ourselves with white noise. I have a home office with a television that I typically keep on a news channel or CSPAN, if I’m not listening to music on Rhapsody. It’s gotten to the point that quiet makes me a bit nervous.
The principle of replacement is important here. Nature abhors a vacuum; when you take something away, another thing will inevitably replace it. And if the focus is on “quit” instead of “start” then the replacement is usually negative. Quit smoking, start eating. On the other hand, start exercising, quit smoking.
My family is making more of an effort to observe the Sabbath, which is defined, and the need for which is discussed at length in the sermon linked above. In practical matters, yesterday that meant that we went to church*, came home, thought about the sermon, discussed the sermon, took a nap (!), talked about any number of things, and did some reading. (Bible and religious instruction books.) The television didn’t come on until after dinner. It would probably have been better to skip it entirely, but we decided to ease into this - it’s a pretty radical change - and we also didn’t want to get all legalistic for the sake of saying we observed the Sabbath according to some standard. We didn’t work, didn’t use the computers (well, maybe a total of 15 minutes, as opposed to the hours normally spent), and didn’t have constant noise. It was good on a number of levels, and we’ll be doing it again and expanding on it.
Psalms 119:48
My hands also I will lift up to Your commandments, which I love, and I will meditate on Your statutes.
Psalms 77:12
I will also meditate on all Your work, and talk of Your deeds.
Philippians 4:8
Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.
Psalms 19:14
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.
Psalms 104:34
May my meditation be sweet to Him; I will be glad in the Lord.
Psalms 46:10
Be still and know that I am God.
*Because Hurricane Katrina destroyed our church, we now meet on Saturdays in another church’s building until our own is completed next year.
Whether Christian or otherwise, meditation and contemplation can only be good things. Unfortunately, our lives have become too fast, to jumbled to have space for the time that, generations ago, we spent in simple thought. For that matter, if you encounter someone simply sitting still and staring into space, you assume something must be wrong with them.
I like to find those little spaces for contemplation in travel, whilst driving or walking some distance. Understanding is rarely the result of devoted attention but rather the result of some minimal distraction, thus walking, driving or repetitive work are all perfect avenues for this.
I reccommend it for everyone.
Another benefit to those long, long walks you take.