Welcome to Christian Meditation with Anita Mathias.
Let's begin to detach from the world,
To retreat into the inner sanctuary of the self,
And to be with our breath,
And the God who gave us breath.
Close your eyes,
Sit straight or cross-legged if that's comfortable for you,
And begin to breathe.
A deep breath in,
And out.
Breathe in deeply,
Breathe out fully.
Once more.
As you relax your body,
Ask for the love of God,
Who is your maker,
Who loves you,
To course through your body,
To all the tense,
Tired,
Sad places,
To places where there may be pain.
Raise your shoulders to your ears,
Slowly roll them,
Clockwise,
Anticlockwise,
Repeat.
Lift your arms upward,
Stretch them,
Cactus them,
I.
E.
Lift them at right angles to your shoulders,
And stretch them slowly backwards,
Ball your fists,
Tense your fingers,
Wriggle them.
Let your breath travel slowly through your body,
Through your abdomen,
Hips,
And to your toes.
Tense your toes,
Wriggle them,
Relax,
Breathe.
Let's try another.
Whole body,
Inhale and exhale,
From your nose to your toes.
Come Holy Spirit,
Maranatha,
Come Lord Jesus.
And here's a meditation on God's transforming call to each of us.
We read in the Gospel of Matthew that as Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee,
He saw two brothers,
Simon and Andrew,
Casting a net into the lake,
For they were fishermen.
Come,
Follow me,
Jesus said,
And I will send you out to fish for people.
At once they left their nets and followed him.
On the same walk,
Jesus called two other brothers,
James and John,
Who leave their boat and their father and follow him.
God is always speaking his transforming words into our lives as we still our hearts and listen.
He is,
By his very nature,
A God who speaks.
At the start of his great Gospel,
The Apostle John calls Jesus the Word,
Who was God and became flesh and lived among us.
And this speaking,
Communicating,
Yearning God calls each of us to the work he wants us to do in the world.
We are sometimes called at a particular point of time,
Through specific words or images,
Or else gradually,
Through an inner conviction that this is the task we are to embark on with all our strength for the rest of our lives.
The call we hear or sense is utterly serious.
And if we say,
Yes,
The moment of response is among the greatest and most important moments of our lives,
For it is a transforming call.
It changes the whole direction of our life from the day we hear God's call.
We must begin to restructure our life in accordance with this necessity.
What we read,
The friendships we invest in,
Our social activities,
Hobbies,
Leisure,
Our whole lives are hitherto to be shaped in accordance with this calling.
The greatest,
Kindest person in the whole world,
Jesus Christ,
Has called you to something you are uniquely equipped to do,
You with your strengths and your weaknesses.
You have been called,
Commissioned to a task in which you will flourish and find joy.
But not just you.
Jesus said he would give his flesh,
Sacrifice his life,
For the life of the world.
And while what we are called to will make us fully,
Blazingly alive,
Mentally,
Emotionally and spiritually,
What God calls us to will also contribute to the life and the flourishing of the world.
God wastes nothing.
Your call will use the gifts,
Experiences and strengths formed in you by the circumstances of your life.
Peter,
Andrew,
James and John were fishermen who sometimes worked hard all night and caught nothing,
Who could row three and three and a half miles out of shore,
Who were caught in perilous storms in which waves crashed into the boat and they almost sank.
This hardiness gave them the tough,
Resilient character of men,
Who could not only catch fish to keep themselves alive,
But could also persuade humans into a richer,
Deeper,
More peaceful and eternal life.
No longer fishermen,
But fishers of men,
Punning Jesus said.
The call of God,
If obeyed,
Always leads to a bigger,
Better and more challenging place.
Your call will stretch you,
Mould you and transform you.
To reject or to ignore the call is to reject growth.
The call gives us a new identity.
The fishermen became leaders,
Writers of the New Testament,
Poetic and prophetic.
And sometimes,
At the point of the call,
God supernaturally puts into us spiritual gifts,
And abilities,
Called an anointing,
O precious thing,
Which makes difficult things easier.
If you yearn for that,
Then pray for it.
The call will involve sacrifice.
We cannot simply squeeze a new mission into our crowded lives.
If you hear God call you to write,
Let's say,
You must immediately ask yourself,
What will I stop doing to make this new thing happen?
Less time reading the news or on social media?
Releasing outgrown friendships which drag you down?
Eating more simply?
More raw foods perhaps?
Buying as few inessential things as possible?
God's call is benevolent,
Beneficent,
Aimed at our flourishing.
As you begin to obey it with increasing faithfulness,
Our whole life changes.
It becomes more serious,
More purpose-driven.
And purpose is one of the greatest things we humans can have,
Along with faith,
Hope and love.
When we have purpose,
Our eyes are bright with it.
Having heard a call,
You set out in obedience on a very long journey,
Which will last the rest of your life.
There's almost always a long gap between hearing a call and seeing the fruits of your work.
For God's call to you is not just for the life and flourishing of the world,
But also for your own growth and flourishing.
While you are refining your skills to fulfil your call,
God is shaping and refining you,
Your persistence,
Your ability to follow through,
To get from A to Z,
Meet deadlines,
Get organised,
To ask him for guidance and learn the sound of his voice.
You grow up,
You mature,
You toughen,
You develop character as you develop your gifts.
The precise call may be revealed progressively.
You can only steer a moving car.
If you hear God's call to write,
Say,
Begin today with the words and ideas which come.
Polish and burnish your craft while awaiting more precise marching orders,
Which may keep coming over decades.
Now here's the hard part.
Being called as many are does not guarantee blazing success in the world's eyes or by human metrics.
God decides our platform,
Whether our work will reach dozens,
Hundreds,
Thousands or millions.
In the parable of the talents,
God gives some one talent,
Some two and some five.
The ones with two and five talents each work as hard as they can and each double their capital.
But still,
One ends up with four talents and the other with ten.
That's life.
If it seems unfair,
It's because we are characters in a play God has written.
He gives us our roles and it's our job to play them as beautifully as we can.
Some writers,
For instance,
Will always have a small audience,
Fact of life.
If that is you,
Write as beautifully and as truly as you can for that audience,
With gratitude for your platform,
Large or small.
But hey,
If having many readers or listeners matters to you,
And it does matter to me,
Ask God to grant you success and trust in his grace to work well,
Whether,
In Milton's phrase,
Your success will eventually be less or more or soon or slow or mean or high.
And what if you have heard a call but have not been steadily faithful in following it?
And here,
I sadly put up my hand.
Me too.
I've not been single-minded.
I have been distracted.
If you've half-heartedly focused on your call and wasted time in trivial pursuits,
Sprint after Jesus as he continues walking by the Sea of Galilee.
Repent and promise renewed faithfulness to your call,
Renewed seriousness,
For our life is a short,
Serious and holy experience.
Recommit and follow your call as intensely as you wish you had done at first.
And what if you haven't heard a specific call yet?
After all,
Peter,
Andrew,
James and John,
Young working men earning their living,
Had not heard a call until that brilliant,
Costly,
Priceless day when Jesus called them.
If you haven't heard a specific call,
Do the next right thing while you await specific direction.
Never jump into a ministry or your life work for God before you've heard God's crystal clear directions.
And while he prepares us,
God also speaks through our lives.
What happens in the doctor's office?
Do you leave resolving to exercise more,
To cut back on sugar,
Caffeine,
White guards,
To meditate?
Start small,
Informing the good habits you'll need,
But start.
Is your house ready to invite friends over,
Without a cleaning up operation that's like hiding the evidence of a crime?
Create time by decluttering everything inessential from your home,
Anything which slows you down as you run your race.
If you tell yourself you'd love to wake with the sun,
Then recalibrate with night-time,
Go to bed alarms in earlier nights.
All this is preparation.
So,
Dear Lord,
Help us to be single-minded and laser-focused on being faithful to what you have called us to do.
We love you.
Increase our love.
We want to always see you before us,
Jesus.
Increase our faith.
Amen.
