Meditation Metaphor: 4 Hours

Over a shared meal with my wife at the romantic venue of Wendy's, I found myself reading the carefully composed verses on the side of the small chili bowl.

So-so chili simmers for 2 hours
Good chili simmers for 3 hours
Our chili simmers for 4 hours

Wendy's chili is very good, I must agree.  I can even say it's better than it was the last time I ordered their chili, a few years back.

I was disappointed with the chili on that prior occasion because the meat in the chili consisted largely of broken-up pieces of Wendy's hamburger patties.  I spent the entire time wondering if the patty pieces were left-overs from the day before {not a particularly appetizing thought), burgers that were rescued from the floor (not at all appetizing), or - charitably - simply the result of convenience, all the ground beef ingredients for Wendy's menu coming from the same packaged and delivered source.

But this chili, the current cardboard bowl of chili in front of me, contained no pieces of patties, but has been made from loose ground beef, providing a more pleasurable - and less distracting - dining experience.

And the long simmering of their claim is no doubt true.  The flavors of meat, stock, sauces and spices present themselves as a single flavor, the result of prolong intermingling and absorption of one another's essence.

Wherein lies the Meditation Metaphor.

Occasional times spent reading small sections of the Word, quickly read and quickly done, are of some benefit.  They're certainly preferable to no Bible time at all.

The longer we spend in the Word the better, obviously.  But also, the more we vary our diet in the Word the better.

We all have our pet sections we can never get too much of, whether it's the Psalms or the Gospels or those great Old Testament stories of kings and patriarchs.  But our meditation on the Word will e richer, more filling and satisfying, if we spice it up with a few Proverbs or add in a particularly meaty but obscure section of the minor prophets.

And spending "quality time"  in the vast variety of the scriptures is like letting the recipe simmer in the mind and heart.  The sundry and diverse flavors and varieties of His Word begin to blend together, to absorb characteristics from one another, until what we are tasting and allowing to transform our lives is a unified experience of the full-bodied nature and character of God Himself.

I did make one mistake in my approach to the bowl of chili tonight, though.  The young man at the counter asked if I wanted hot sauce with my chili.  Being in a mood for muy caliente, I said Yes.

But when I added the small packet of hot sauce into the chili after the first few spoons-full, I found that it distracted from the good taste of the chili.  You see, the hot sauce hadn't been included in the 4 hours of simmering, and it therefore stood out distinctly from the well-blended presentation of the perfect Wendy's chili experience.  It somewhat overwhelmed the other flavors.

We risk doing the same to our absorption of God's well-rounded Word when we take it upon ourselves to top off a session reading the Bible with a too-hasty and too-distinctive dash of reading the opinions in our Study Bible notes or a separate commentary.

We will learn and absorb the character of God best by spending hours simmering in the very Word itself before we reach outside the scriptures for other flavoring.


Either by happenstance or by the providential nudge of His finger, just a couple of hours after we finished our meal at Wendy's, a friend of mine came to our house for the monthly "Guys' Night" portion of our Small Group, and brought with him his supper, which he had picked up on his way.  A bowl of Wendy's chili, of course.

Guys' Night turned out to be just Steve and I on this night - due in great part to deer season.  But we had a good talk and prayed together.

After the prayer, I pointed out to Steve that his chili bowl had a great spiritual lesson - a meditation metaphor - written on the side.

He looked at the bowl for a moment, and then smiled.

"Rich & Meaty!" he exclaimed.  "That's what I'll tell my wife when she asks how Guys' Night went.  It was Rich and Meaty!  And then then I'll lick my lips."

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.
  Colossians 3