Meditation Metaphor: Three Hots & a Cot

Janie confessed one day that until the first time she went to prison, she had never in her young life been sure she would get to eat three meals in any one day and have a bed to sleep on at night.  To  her, three hots and a cot is a luxury.

In prison she has found her niche.  She's learned the institutional rules - both the official rules and the unwritten ones - and she knows how to get through her days without too many problems. She even has a circle of friends to make her life a little brighter.

Whenever she finishes a prison sentence and is released back out onto the streets, her outlook turns dismal.  She has difficulty seeing beyond the needs of the moment on her best days, and being out in the world only worsens her reasoning capabilities. The streets don't operate according to rigidly defined rules, leaving her with too many options requiring choices.

Before long, she makes one too many bad decisions and crosses the wrong lines, landing herself back inside the only place she feels comfortable.

Some might attribute the stark contrast to increased stress or the availability of drugs or alcohol. Those certainly play a factor.

But I'm pretty sure the key difference is the three hots and a cot.

The human body is designed to function best when fed regularly.  It requires daily recharging during a regular and comfortable sleep cycle.

When the body is deprived of regular nutrition and sleep, the mind also suffers. The results are never good.

The same dynamic holds true for our spiritual well-being.

Without regularly slowing down and spending time feeding on God's Word, my mind and soul suffers. For awhile I can rely on the reserve of Bible knowledge I've picked up over the years. At least once a week I go to church and the preacher gives me a spiritual meal that don't require any effort on my part.

It doesn't take long, though, for the spiritual hunger to drag me into looking for love and joy and peace in the wrong places. Breaking the downward spiral of bad decisions is hard.

Until something happens to knock me down to a place of desperation and I remember to look to God for nourishment. He's always there, a feast set before me on His table, holding a chair out for me.

I'll never understand why I keep snacking on the spiritual junk food of fast times and pop culture when there's a banquet table waiting for me.

You prepare a table before me
  in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
  my cup overflows.
    (Psalm 23:5)

Meditation Metaphor: Swimming Lessons

I'm not a swimmer.

I never learned how to swim as a child.  I remember taking a single swimming lesson at the local pool.  When the teacher had us put our faces down into the water and count to 5, and then to 10, and so on, I panicked.

As a child with chronic breathing problems, the idea of not being able to inhale whenever I wanted to was frightening.  I was scared my body would gasp for breath without me being able to control it, because that was a daily occurrence in my life when my face wasn't immersed in water.

I was so unnerved by the thought that I panicked and threw a major fit.  For some reason, my parents let me drop out of the swimming class and never made me try it again.

My son, though, did take swimming lessons, and we did make him stick with it after the initial panic passed.

Once he learned the basics of swimming, he took to the pool like a fish.

He had asthma problems as a kid he said the humidity of the indoor pool somehow made him feel better.  I found that odd, since my own breathing problems (not asthma) make me feel like I'm suffocating if I'm in an enclosed pool for very long.

As a result, I have tended to stay away from pools and the water, while my son, Cody, loves swimming.

He took swimming lessons for several years and became increasingly good at it.  He seemed more relaxed and in his element in the water than out of it.

He loved it so much and became so good at it that he became a lifeguard when he was 15, which was his entry point into an enduring attraction to jobs - both paid and volunteer - as a firefighter, emergency first responder, security guard, and the like.  On more than one occasion his experience as a lifeguard has come in handy when responding to rescue situations at lakes and rivers.


For many people, getting used to spending time in the Word are is as difficult as spending time in the water has been for me. They're put off or even panicked by their first experiences.

• The somewhat archaic language of even the newer translations can be intimidating to some
• For some people who don't read much at all beyond a headline of an article or blog, reading the scriptures just seems like too much effort
•  Others dive into the Word, only to be put off by what they see as all the do's and don't's of the Bible.  As one person told me, "every things I read just gives me more reasons why God should be mad at me."
• Many people are like I was with my early swimming lessons.  They have a negative experience with reading the Bible and never want to go back and try it again.  And no one forces them to try again.  The entire programming of many churches actually encourages members to rely on the preacher and other leaders to do the reading, digesting and distributing of scriptural truth.  

What people fail to realize in what they're missing by giving scripture meditation another try.

You don't have to become a theologian. You don't have to understand even most of what you're reading. Just as with learning to swim, there are ways to ease yourself into it.

• Step into the wading pool and simply read the scriptures in manageable sections.
    
• Read  to get a feeling for the heart of God.  What does He like?  What does He not like?
  
• Choose carefully which sections of the Bible to begin when you're just learning to read it.  The Psalms and the Gospels are the best places to begin.  Proverbs can also be a good book for early readers.  Stay away from most of the Old Testament at first.
  
• Find a fellow Christian whose heart you trust.  Ask them questions when you get bogged down or begin to panic about something you're reading.
  
• Make a habit of your reading.  Schedule it.  Gradually increase the duration and frequency of the time you spend in scriptures. The more time you spend in the Word, the easier it will become.  Like learning to swim, you become acclimated your surroundings and learn to become more comfortable in deeper waters.

The more you meditate on the Word, the deeper you go, the deeper your relationship with the Lord will go. Your heart will begin to align with His heart.  You'll soon discover you love jumping into the Word with Him.

For in him we live and move and have our being. (Acts 17:28)

Stick with it long enough and you'll not only become comfortable in the Word, you'll also discover yourself able to be a guide to others, using your knowledge and experience in the scriptures to lead others into a deeper relationship with Him.

Those Christians who have been your teachers and mentors and question-answer-ers began where you began, stepping their toes carefully into the Word. Now they're lifeguards and first responders for others who are just learning to experience God.

Keep going deeper and you'll find yourself becoming just like them.

Faith on the 4th

If Christians have faith in the God who laughs at the rulers of nations and their schemes, why do they let themselves get emotionally worked up and paranoid about who is in power and the things they're doing?

Blessed are all who take refuge in him. (Psalm 2:12)

Meditation Metaphor: Living Water

There are many different kinds of people at the gym.

Some are totally ripped, their muscles bulging and their shirts straining as they pump iron. Others, like me, have better muscle tone than we would have if we didn't work out, but we'll never have muscles like that.  And then there's the folks who have little discernible muscle tone, who break into a sweat lifting 5 pound weights.

There are some who climb onto the treadmill and spend over an hour walking, jogging and running.  I consider it a good day when I can last 30 minutes, just walking.

One thing we all have in common, though. When we take breaks, we grab the water bottle or head to the drinking fountain.

Most people who are at all active, whether they do strenuous work or work-outs, discover the importance of hydration. Without it, you won't last long.

The more you work your body, the more you use up the fluids and electrolytes in your system.

What your body needs most is water.  But if you're working exceptionally hard for a very long period of time, sports drinks can be a good idea.  Sports drinks mix water with salt and sugars, which not only speed the body's absorption of fluids but also replenish the electrolytes lost during exercise.

Taking in too much water, though, can result in over-hydration, which can also be bad, because you are, in effect, diluting the amount of salt and other electrolytes in your system.

I've discovered it's best if I drink fluids steadily throughout the day, rather than waiting until I'm actually working hard. Like a camel, I'm able to maintain a steady pace for a longer time.

As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?
Psalm 42:1-2

I've discovered that I also need a steady infusion of living water in order to make it through an active life of walking by faith. Waiting to get into the Word only when I'm at church, or only when trials come and I suddenly am in need of spiritual refreshment, just doesn't work well.

Just as there are different types of people at the gym, there are many different kinds of Christians at church. Some are quite strong spiritually, actively doing the work God has set for them to do.  Others are comfortable in their usual seats on Sunday morning and occasionally step out in faith, although they wish they knew how to be a little more steady in their faith and in their fruit-bearing. Still others go through the motions of being "churched" and eventually find it easier to join the "unchurched".

People who practice good habits of regular meditation on the Word find their spiritual hydration level stays steady.  They're not only equipped to deal with any situation they encounter, they are filled with energy and eagerness to see what God has in store for them next.

They also learn the value of supplementing the living water with salt:  being salt.  It's important to get out and interact with people and "be the salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of the world" (Matthew 5:13, The Message) . That experience helps them to understand and process what they read in the scriptures more thoroughly and effectively, because they're actively involved in doing the work for which God is is preparing them, bearing fruit.

Blessed is the one
  who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
  or sit in the company of mockers,
but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
  and who meditates on his law day and night.
That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
  which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
  whatever they do prospers.
     Psalm 1:1-3

Drink often and drink deep.

Meditation Metaphor: Weed and Word

Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Ephesians 5:18-20

Lots of people "get religion" when they get sent to prison. While some of them devote themselves to the "fake it to make it" religion, most are sincere in their seeking.

For many of them, their new found faith is tied mostly to the feeling they get when they're singing songs of praise and getting all excited about forgiveness and glory.  They're even told by some chapel groups that Ephesians 5 tells them the best way to get past their addiction is to "get all excited" by the Holy Spirit and jump around and sing in the Spirit.

I often tell the ladies in our weekly prison chapel services that if all they get from jailhouse religion is a spiritual high, then all they've done is exchange the addiction that landed them in prison with a different addiction.  When they're released and are back out on the streets, there will be plenty of other things available to make them high.  If they've done nothing to change their habits and focus, they'll likely go right back to the drugs or booze or adrenaline fix to get their high.

So we try to teach them how to fill themselves with a deep and lasting hunger for righteousness and to keep in step with the Spirit.

One of the keys to going deep in faith is to seek both the instant uplift of reading the Word and the long-term psychological and spiritual changes that results from prolonged and sustained meditation on the Word.

These dual effects are surprisingly similar to the short and long term effects of cannabis usage.  For the uninformed, that's marijuana.  Weed.  Mary Jane.

The immediate effects of smoking marijuana include relaxation and a mild pleasurable feeling- getting high or being "stoned".

Few who haven't been a part of the drug culture would describe it as such, but there's no denying that focusing on the scriptures can give you a "buzz" of good feeling. To put it in more biblical terms, mediating on God's Word can produce feelings of peace and joy.

The immediate pleasurable effects of marijuana are even more intense when the cannabis is eaten rather than smoked and inhaled.

This reminds me of several places in scripture where prophets talk about eating a scroll or the words given to them by God or angels (Ezekiel 3:1, Jeremiah 15:16).  They describe it as a pleasurable and motivating act, but it can also have less than pleasant results, just like orally consuming cannabis:

I took the little scroll from the angel's hand and ate it. It tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it, my stomach turned sour. (Revelation 10:10)

Through long-term meditation on the Bible, a residual of God's Word settles deeply into our minds and hearts and souls, producing lasting joy and peace.  This is the deep-seated "addiction" to following God's heart that that I think Paul was encouraging in Ephesians 5.

Much as an habitual user of marijuana takes on the characteristics and personality of the stereotypical "pot-head", so the person who is a habitual meditator upon the Word takes on the characteristics and personality of the Divine Author.

And I have to add, though some may say I'm stretching the metaphor to far, that there is another side effect of marijuana that has a spiritual parallel.

I'm talking about the "munchies".  Both colloquial wisdom and scientific research agree that use of cannabinoids makes people hungry.  Scientifically, the drug enhances the taste receptors and actually activates certain other receptors in the body that increases the desire the food.

Likewise, meditating on the scriptures increases our desire for and enjoyment of the Word. The more we consume of what God has to offer, the more we hunger and thirst for righteousness. As a result, we'll hunger less for other things that used to give us a high.


Blogger's note: No cannabinoids were consumed during the research process for this blog post.

Meditation Metaphor: At the Gym

Since I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes on September 1, 2012, I've been very diligent about making a trip to the local gym four times a week: Wednesday & Thursday, Saturday & Sunday.  Mondays there's no time, since I leave work and have an hour to get everything thrown together to hit the road with my wife for the weekly trip to the prison.  Tuesdays are no good, because after getting in late the night before (after prison) I'm physically exhausted by the time I get off work.  Fridays my body needs a break between the two pair of workout days.

The first thing I do upon arriving at the gym is to step onto the scale and dutifully record my weight on the My Fitness Pal app (which I highly recommend).

I learned early on not to react too strongly to the daily weight measurement.  My weight can swing within a 5-7 pound range from one day to the next, depending on what I've eaten, how long it's been since my last workout, the alignment of the stars, and which socks I'm wearing.  (And don't forget to put down the iPhone when you step on the scale - it adds a good pound or two, more if you have a lot of Skillet songs downloaded)

The history graph on My Fitness Pal gives a better picture of how I'm doing. The graph leaps up and down like a cardiac monitor during a stretch on the stair climber, but by looking at the bast month or the past 3 months I can see the general direction of its movement (or lack of  movement).

Losing weight is a slow process.  It's hard to be motivated to stick to the plan when someone in the next office over brings in a bag of fresh bagels in the morning. After getting past the initial fear that eating half a bagel would put into some sort of diabetic coma, my only real motivation is to look at that slowly dropping chart.

Even slower is the upward change in my muscle tone and strength.  Not only am I eating less and doing more cardio exercises, I'm also working out regularly with weights. I do this because I've read that muscle mass burns calories faster than other tissues.

Who am I kidding?  I pump the iron because, like most guys, it's the weight machines and barbells that get my adrenaline pumping and make me feel like a true gym rat.  And that self indulgence helps motivate me to go to the gym.

But there's no simple app for measuring my muscle mass.  I suppose I could chart the increase in the weight settings for each machine or the bench press.  But those numbers move even more gradually than my weight.

The only way to see the gradual changes in my physique is to take a monthly selfie of myself with my shirt off, doing the classic Charles Atlas pose.  And I'm afraid my wife and son would laugh at me if they were to catch me in the bathroom doing that.

Actually, I notice the effects of my gym time the most when I discover myself doing something I haven't been able to do for years.  The most recent example would be when I climbed the stairs at the library, a habit I've worked on as opposed to taking the elevator.

Just the other day I was halfway up the staircase when I realized I had been taking the stairs two at a time. In my teens and twenties I would scale stairways in such a fashion and just shake my heads at the slow old people I left in my wake.

Now, at the age of 57, I surprised myself by behaving like a teenager again.

I should note, for the sake of honesty, that I noticed I was skipping steps because after the third such double-step My knee reminded me that I am not in fact 17, and what did I think I was doing.

For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.  This is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance.  That is why we labor and strive, because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, and especially of those who believe.  I Timothy 4:8-10

Meditating on the Word according to a scheduled and consistent routine can sometimes be difficult to sustain. Many days the verses and chapters just don't jump off the page and produce rapturous visions of glory.

It's difficult to chart the changes that training (from the Greek gumnasia, from which we get our gymnastics) in godliness are working on our spiritual fitness.

Just as physical fitness presents itself most often in an occasional, "wow I look/feel better" moment, godly fitness tends to show its face when we're actually walking by faith, keeping in step with the Spirit, laboring and striving to do the things God has called us to do.

Don't expect to enjoy the fruit of your meditations unless you're also bearing the fruit of exertion.

God Loves Fred Phelps

Westboro Baptist Church Founder Rev. Fred Phelps Dies http://t.co/jsTYo0e73R
— NPR News (@nprnews) March 20, 2014

Fred Phelps no doubt thought he was genuinely serving God by his actions.  He probably genuinely considered himself to be faithfully representing the Father by making GOD HATES FAGS and GOD HATES AMERICA well know phrases.

I have no reason to think Phelps was entirely sincere in his conviction that he was fulfilling the mission of God by picketing the funerals of fallen soldiers.

I suspect he thought he was training up the children of his extended family in the way they should go , by standing them on street corners and in cemeteries with sign proclaiming God's hatred.

What many don't know is that he was a respected church leader and lawyer for much of the first 40 years of his life.  According to his Wikipedia bio, he was known as a staunch defender of civil rights.  He received awards from the Greater Kansas City Chapter of Blacks in Government and the Bonner Springs branch of the NAACP, for his work on behalf of black clients.

But sometime during the 1970s and '80s, the record shows that he became increasingly strident in his condemnation of sin, reacting strongly against sexual perversions especially.

From there, his life led down a path well known to us all, one that will be his legacy forever.


The Question of the Day for all Christians, for all of us who preach or teach or attempt to share our faith, is this:

Am I sure that my actions, my attitudes, are not on a slow, slippery slope toward excessive hatred and irrational "religious" actions?

Have I allowed my personal revulsion about certain sins to blind me to God's love for everyone?

Have I allowed a personal mission to express my doctrinal, political, or social opinions to hinder God's mission to seek and save the lost?

Am I willing to take a deep and honest look at my own heart and my actions, to make sure I'm not deluding myself into believing I'm doing the work God re-created me to do?

Perhaps you should ask someone if they think you're on the right track, if they see any indications of misdirected energies.  Don't ask your closest friend - they might be on the same blind path.  Ask someone who is a fellow Christian, but with whom you don't always agree.

As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17)

For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12)

Stay sharp, friends. And make sure the battle you're fighting is God's, not yours.