Hello friends,
Welcome to the 18th episode of Christian Meditation with me,
Anita Mathias.
Let's close our eyes and begin to detach from the world and to enter the inner sanctuary of our soul and spirit,
Made by God,
Precious to God.
The best way of calming down and of experiencing a change of state and moving from agitation to mental calm is by focusing on slow,
Deep breathing.
Let's slow our breath and breathe out to the count of five,
Exhaling any stress or tension,
And then breathe in to the count of five,
Inhaling the deep peace of the stars and of God.
Checking in on our breathing is a way of checking in with ourselves.
How am I breathing?
That will tell you something of how you are really doing.
Am I stressed?
Can I relax,
Breathe and connect with the spirit who is wind and breath?
As you begin to relax your body,
Raise your shoulders to your ears,
Rotate them clockwise and anticlockwise.
Breathe,
Lift your arms upwards to stretch them,
Hold your right wrist with your left hand,
Stretch towards your left and then reverse the movement towards your right.
Breathe.
In one of the many paradoxes which underlie life,
We can relax our bodies by tightening,
Then releasing our muscles.
Tense and tighten your upper body as much as you can.
Release it,
Breathe.
Tense and tighten your hips,
Legs and feet.
Release,
Breathe.
And now tense and release your fingers and your toes.
Let's inhale and exhale once more to the count of five,
Further releasing bodily tension by oxygenating our body with our breath.
One of our great gifts as sentient human beings is that as long as we have reasonable mental health,
We can choose the inner song we sing,
The inner music of our thoughts and lives.
Humans have,
What psychologists term,
An evolutionary negativity bias.
We're more likely to remember criticism than a compliment,
To dwell on the one super annoying person in a group than the 12 lovely ones,
And money lost to us through a swindle then gained through a windfall.
But at any time we can consciously change our thoughts and sing a new song to the Lord in the psalmist's phrase.
One way to sing a new song is to start counting everything you are grateful for in your life and in the world on your fingers,
Numbering off people,
Art,
Animals,
Books,
Refusing to stop until you reach 10.
Another way to change our mental track from worry and negativity is to briefly focus on what we know of the magnificent Lord Jesus Christ,
The things he said and the things he did.
So,
As we segue into our meditation,
Let's do some breath prayers.
Exhale and inhale through them.
Thank you,
Lord,
For the natural world around us,
For the ever-changing painting of the clouds above us,
Always different every single day.
Jesus,
Who directed Peter to find a silver coin in the mouth of a fish.
Please guide our financial and business decisions.
Show us where best to invest our energies.
Jesus,
Who promised us living water,
Which would still our restlessness.
Please fill us with your deep peace.
Jesus,
Who fed 5,
000 with five loaves.
Please could you graciously multiply the fruit of our work a thousandfold.
Amen.
Following Jesus is costly and infinitely worthwhile.
Then Jesus said to his disciples,
Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves,
Take up their cross and follow me.
For whoever wants to save his life will lose it,
But whoever loses his life for me will find it.
Matthew 16,
24.
Jesus is blazingly honest about the cost of following him.
It is our most brilliant,
Golden choice,
Though it does mean we can no longer follow ourselves and our self-indulgent or prideful desires.
We dance instead to his otherworldly,
Life-changing music,
Asking at each transition point of our day or life,
Jesus,
What is your assignment?
How do I do it?
Your way.
And we accept the sacrifices necessary to beautifully live the particular life God has given us,
With its responsibilities and its boredom,
To develop our unique gifts and to fulfil our unique calling.
For me,
And this is descriptive,
Not prescriptive,
Shouldering my cross includes eliminating sugar and starchy carbs so as to lose excess weight,
Not watching TV,
Extreme,
Endeavouring to keep my house and garden organised and pretty enough,
And using internet blockers to limit time spent on social media or news sites,
And also,
Alas,
Having to tame my anger and outspokenness,
And refusing to sing a song of worry or to linger in anger,
In anger,
Training myself to sing instead a song of trust,
Praise and gratitude,
While following Jesus is meaningful,
Electric and joyful.
Following ourselves could entail ruining our health with addictive foods like sugar or caffeine,
With overwork or the siren call of our phones.
Following Jesus does not mean relinquishing our goals and ambitions,
But it does mean surrendering them to Him.
We no longer own our work,
God owns it,
And so we must repent when we overwork,
Get too intense about success,
Or try to impress others with our success,
For our competitive cravings for success,
Fame,
Money,
Popularity or power wreck our relationships and our mental,
Spiritual and eventually physical health,
And they never satisfy,
For the ladder of success has no end,
And climbing it means exhausting ourselves for nothing.
We're still restless.
You have made us for Yourself,
O Lord,
And our hearts are restless until they find their rest in You,
Saint Augustine wrote,
If we do not try to obey the great commandment to love God,
And also Christ's second commandment,
Like the first,
To love our neighbour as ourselves.
One day,
We could open the treasure box of our hearts and our lives and find only ashes,
Nothing.
The great C.
S.
Lewis writes,
Give up yourself and you will find your real self,
Lose your life and you will save it,
Submit to death,
Death of your ambitions and favourite wishes every day,
Submit with every fibre of your being,
Keep back,
Nothing,
Nothing that you have not given away will be really yours,
Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead,
Look for yourself and you will,
In the long run,
Find only hatred,
Loneliness,
Despair,
Rage,
Ruin and decay,
But look for Christ and you will find Him,
And with Him,
Everything,
Thrown in,
From mere Christianity,
Following Jesus means discipline,
But staggering rewards,
The restlessness quenching streams of the living water of the Spirit,
Flowing from us,
And Christ Himself,
Living bread to help us feel alive inside,
Not dead,
Besides,
He occasionally guides us to the one fish with the silver coin in His mouth,
Or shoals of 153 fish,
When we've laboured fruitlessly for decades,
And sometimes He converts our water into wine and multiplies our efforts a thousandfold,
Giving us,
In His phrase,
All the things non-believers run after,
Jesus,
Following you is so worth it,
Even when we do it badly,
Spirit,
Please help us follow Jesus more closely,
Amen and Amen.
