Celebration of Discipline Week 1: Meditation
Over the next 12 weeks we are going to explore the book Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster. In these months – which are strange and unsettling – we want to be a voice that is encouraging and hopeful, and one that points to Jesus. This book is a great resource that we can engage with together as the Onelife family. Our prayer is that when we get to the other side of these 12 weeks we will look just a little bit more like Jesus.
Each week we will be exploring a different discipline. There will be a blog at the start of the week outlining the discipline (what, why and how we can engage with it) and a video at the end of the week sharing how we have found it. We would love you to journey through this with us.
If you fancy buying the book, go for it! It’s available from wherever you buy your books, and also on Amazon Kindle. If you just want to read the blog and go from there, that’s great too.
As we jump in to celebrating discipline, it’s important that we understand the reasons behind the practices. These practices in themselves will not transform us to look like Jesus (only Jesus himself can do that) but what they can do is to bring us in front of Jesus. They help us to slow down, making time and space so that we can simply be with Jesus and let him do a transformative work within us.
Discipline One: Meditation
Perhaps, like me, when you think of meditation you imagine some tradition originating from the Far East. I know my mind conjures up pictures of Japanese gardens and people in robes sat with their legs crossed making some sort of peaceful ‘ummm’ sound. Well, that is a form of meditation, but it’s the not what the Bible means when it talks about it.
The aim of Eastern meditation is to become empty, setting aside ‘self’ and becoming one with the universe. The aim of biblical mediation is for us to encounter the living God – leading to repentance, obedience and faithfulness to his word and ways. It’s all about making space in our ever-so-busy schedules to sit, slow down and be in front of Jesus.
Which means that the ‘enemy of meditation’ is busyness and hurry. Meditation is slow in nature. It can’t be hurried or squeezed in. The ultimate aim is that we would constantly be aware of the presence and person of Jesus in every moment of our lives – but this can only happen when we are going at a pace where we are slow enough to engage with our timeless God.
‘It’s often easier to numb our thoughts, feelings and longings with distraction rather than engaging with them in the quiet place’
For me, I find that busyness is usually married with distraction: I’m busy, but in those moments where I do have a spare minute I often use it to check in with my Instagram feed rather than my heavenly Father. It’s often easier to numb our thoughts, feelings and longings with distraction rather than engaging with them in the quiet place, but that is what this discipline is all about. It’s about making time and space to be aware of Jesus and to bring him our heart, exactly as it is, and asking him to touch it.
In the Celebration of Discipline chapter on meditation, Richard Foster offers five different routes for starting this journey. Perhaps pick one way to practise this week. Choose a time (put it in your diary) and choose a place – somewhere quiet without distraction – and then have a go! If you’re reading the book alongside us then have a read and choose whichever route you want to practise.
If you’re simply engaging with our series and not directly with the book, then follow this guide for the first route for mediation: Meditation upon Scripture. This is what I’ll be trying this week!
Meditation Route One
Meditation upon Scripture
This is all about actively engaging with scripture. Pick a passage, one of the stories about Jesus perhaps.
Read it over a few times and imagine yourself as someone within the scene. Maybe you’re the woman at the well, or a child that Jesus engages with, perhaps a by stander to a miracle.
Ask yourself: what do you smell, see, touch, taste and hear? Let yourself be drawn into the story and experience it first hand.
What are you noticing about Jesus?
Stay in the place of imagination and engage with Jesus before you. What do you want to say to him? What does he want to say to you?
End the time by writing down anything you feel God might be saying for you to do now. Often in these times of engaging with Jesus we might find that he draws us back into the ordinary with something he wants us to do. Maybe it’s apologise to our friend we were short with, to put the washing away before our mum tells us or to message that friend we know is having a hard time. Try to act in obedience straight away and think about writing down any other reflections you’ve had during this time.
Richard Foster recommends these daily scripture readings as we explore meditation this week:
Monday: The glory of meditation – Exodus 24:15–18
Tuesday: The friendship of meditation – Exodus 33:11
Wednesday: The terror of meditation – Exodus 20:18–19
Thursday: The object of meditation – Psalm 1:1–3
Friday: The comfort of meditation – 1 Kings 19:9–18
Saturday: The insights of meditation – Acts 10:9–20
Sunday: The ecstasy of meditation – 2 Corinthians 12:1–4
Video Update
Here's Helen with an update at the end of our first week exploring Meditation.
Follow @onelifeleaders on Instagram to continue the journey.
We’ll be sharing blog posts, encouraging quotes and video reflections on each chapter of Celebration of Discipline.