Meditation is one of those words with multiple meanings, and some Christians are frightened by the concept because they think that meditating involves emptying their minds completely and allowing outside spiritual forces to fill the vacuum.
Two people are involved when we meditate — ourselves, and God. Queen Anne’s Lace, original oil painting by Steve Henderson, sold; licensed open edition prints at Great Big Canvas, iCanvasART, and Framed Canvas Art.
(Interestingly, this is a good description of what happens when we sit in front of the TV, chips in hand, but for some reason we keep doing it.)
Emptying one’s mind, however, is not the only option (and indeed, not a valid one for Christians), and meditation upon Scripture involves actively using that mind as we contemplate, muse, ponder, and deliberate over what we are reading.
Please follow the link to Improving Your Meditation Skills at my BeliefNet blog, Commonsense Christianity. You may, or may not, like my suggestions (feel free, always, to comment! I answer to the best of my ability), but it can’t hurt for any of us to increase our ability to read, understand, and grapple with Scripture. (Because if we don’t, there are far too many well paid propaganda artists out there quite willing to do it for us.)
