Meditation. The notion of being able to settle down, quiet one’s mind and chant a mantra until reaching a state of peaceful bliss sounds wonderful.

Mid-sixties psychedelic music espoused the LSD-drenched philosophies of Dr. Timothy Leary. Leary, a former Harvard psychologist, took his studies on therapeutic use of psilocybin and lysergic acid diethylamide a bit too far by partaking in these drugs with his test subjects. After his dismissal from the university, Leary became a vocal proponent of psychedelic drug use, coining the famous phrase encouraging young people to “turn on, tune in, and drop out.”

The Beatles were among the first pop bands to spread the message. In 1966, they closed their classic album Revolver with the song “Tomorrow Never Knows”, a droning track propelled by tape loops, backwards guitars, and otherworldly effects aplenty.

John Lennon wrote the song after reading Leary’s The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Indeed, Lennon lifted lyrics directly from Leary:

Turn off your mind, relax and float downstream… lay down all thought, surrender to the void… that you may see the meaning of within…

This is the goal of meditation as defined by the counterculture of the sixties: to obtain a state of being that transcends all physical reality, all thought, beyond human consciousness. This is the definition of meditation that has stuck in the minds of people ever since.

Let me state right here and now that I am a firm believer in meditation. Just not this imitation of peace seeking.

True meditation.

1 Blessed is the man
    who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
    nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
² but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
    and on his law he meditates day and night.

³ He is like a tree
    planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
    and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.
⁴ The wicked are not so,
    but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

Psalm 1:1-4 (ESV)

The Hebrew word translated as meditates (הָגָה hâgâh) implies pondering. Thoughtfully mulling over. Considering. In other words, meditation is actually thinking deeply about the Lord, and His will, and His ways.

No floating thoughtlessly down a stream of unconsciousness.

No mindless surrender to “the void”. There is no void. When God first created the earth, it was “without form and void” (Genesis 1:2). In other words, it was empty. Not as a permanent state of existence, but as a starting point, a blank canvas to begin filling with God’s wondrous creation.

¹⁸ For thus says the Lord,
who created the heavens
    (he is God!),
who formed the earth and made it
    (he established it;
he did not create it empty,
    he formed it to be inhabited!):
“I am the Lord, and there is no other.
¹⁹ I did not speak in secret,
    in a land of darkness;
I did not say to the offspring of Jacob,
    ‘Seek me in vain.’
I the Lord speak the truth;
    I declare what is right. – Isaiah 45:18-19 (ESV)

There are plenty of fearsome things going on to cause us to seek peace of mind these days. The world feels like it’s about to spin off its axis. So many troubles and worrisome situations:

Will AI take over the world?

Will the war in Ukraine ever end?

Will the war with Iran ever end?

Will the world’s oil supply run dry?

Will China take over the world?

Will the US economy improve?

Will the political and social divisions ever heal?

Will Islam take over the world?

Will Canada ever love us again?

How high will ocean levels rise when the poles melt?

Can we afford the payments if we buy Greenland?

Will Greenland take over the world?

Should I worry because there were no Atlantic hurricanes this season?

Should I worry about all the earthquakes around the world this year?

What if my party loses in the upcoming midterms?

Will Taylor Swift take over the world?

And on and on etc.

Like it or not, we’re always meditating on something. Maybe it’s bad news. Maybe it’s worries about work or family or health or wealth or the familial splintering in the UK royal family.

Maybe it’s just inward gazing into the void of our navels.

The truth is we are instructed to meditate. Not just as a means of finding inner peace. That just leads to escapism, a means of hiding from reality.

What we need to do is trust God through all that we face and meditate on His Word, maintaining a constant connection to our Lord (what the apostle Paul called “pray(ing) without ceasing”).

Meditating on God is simply as Jesus instructed:

“Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” – Matthew 6:33 (ESV)

So, yes, meditate. Not by chanting om until you’re blue in the face. Not through trying to escape into thoughtless void. (If that worked, don’t you Jesus would have been chanting some mantra in the garden of Gethsemane instead of praying to the Father?)

Meditate on the Word of God. Think about Who He is. Ponder His attributes. Understand He is your Father, and you His child. Know the Lord is sovereign over all (yes, even Taylor Swift). Embrace the Truth and, in doing so, see things as God sees them.

⁴ Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. ⁵ Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; ⁶ do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

⁸ Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. ⁹ What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. – Philippians 4:4-9 (ESV)

Amen.

The older I get, the clearer I see the key to being at peace is complete and utter faithful surrender to God through Jesus Christ. Casting every care on the Lord. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.

It isn’t easy. It requires surrendering our plans and ideas / ideologies and biases and fears and hobbies and relationships and careers… everything to the Lord and His will and His Word and letting Jesus be the measure of how we live, what we believe, what we do.

If you think about it, surrender to God is absolutely logical. After all, God is sovereign over everything. I am not. That is far above my pay grade and not part of my job description as a Christ disciple. Best to let God be God and trust that He knows what’s going on and why and how to handle everything.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding. In all of your ways acknowledge Him and He will make straight your path.

Can we be real here? I certainly hope so.

I’ve been under a lot of pressure lately. A lot of stress.

As in feeling like an elephant is about to crush me under foot.

The feeling is awful.

Dreadful.

Exhausting.

If you deal with anxiety and depression,I think you can relate to these feelings.

But, here’s the thing: feelings lie. Emotions cloud the truth. When we follow the fear, believe the worrisome, take the bait of anxiety, our feelings have handed the enemy a win.

Instead of letting our negative thoughts and feelings rule over our lives, we need to remember to abide in Jesus.

I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. ² Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. ³ Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. ⁴ Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. ⁵ I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. ⁶ If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. ⁷ If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.⁸ By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. ⁹ As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. ¹⁰ If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. ¹¹ These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. – John 15:1-11 (ESV)

To abide in Jesus is to live connected to Him.

Constantly.

It is following the Lord’s teachings.

Constantly.

Most of all, to abide in Jesus is to surrender everything – yes, everything – to God and trust in Him fully and completely, 100%.

Abiding in Jesus is how we, as the branches, are nourished by the vine (Jesus), whose source is The Father (the Vinedresser). It is through our connection to the LORD that we are fed, supplied, cared for. Through the vine we produce fruit. Apart from the vine – when we are disconnected from Jesus – we can do nothing.

So, how do we maintain our connection to God? Here are a few things that will help:

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you (Matthew 6:33, ESV). Lay aside all worry and anxiety and trust God in all things.

⁶ Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you,⁷ casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you (1 Peter 5:6-7, ESV). We were never meant to carry our burdens alone. It takes humility to die to self, and trust to cast your cares on God.

¹⁶ Rejoice always, ¹⁷ pray without ceasing,¹⁸ give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, ESV). We can be full of joy despite our circumstances because God is sovereign, God is love, and we can stay connected with Him through prayer. Constant God consciousness. When we realize Who God is, who we are as He defines us (and, yes, we are defined by the LORD, not our sins, our pasts, our jobs, our successes, our failures, our bank balances, our prestige, our failures…), gratitude io God is our appropriate and heart felt reaction.

⁵ Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
    and do not lean on your own understanding.
⁶ In all your ways acknowledge him,
    and he will make straight your paths.
⁷ Be not wise in your own eyes;
    fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.
⁸ It will be healing to your flesh
    and refreshment to your bones. – Proverbs 3:5-8 (ESV)

Truly realize God is in control, and daily – yes, first thing every morning – give your day to the LORD. Let go of the control side of your thoughts and trust God to handle everything.

I’ve heard it said that we don’t want God to be our co-pilot. We want Him in full control of the aircraft! To abide in the LORD is to trust Him fully, staying connected through constant prayer and seeking Him and His ways first and foremost. Rest in Jesus. Abide in Him and find His great peace that passes understanding.

⁴ Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.⁵ Let your reasonableness^[d] be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; ⁶ do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.⁷ And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

⁸ Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. ⁹ What you have learned^[e] and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. – Philippians 4:4-9 (ESV)

When I see the insanity swirling around us – the chaos, the absurdity, the violence, the bad news, the societal troubles, the political dysfunction, the hatred and division… I stop and remind myself:

(Jesus said), “6 And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are but the beginning of the birth pains.” – Matthew 24:6-8 (ESV)

Solomon wrote: “What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.” – Ecclesiastes 1:9 (ESV)

And, while he is no theologian by any stretch of the imagination, Bob Dylan once sang, “You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows” (“Subterranean Homesick Blues”). While Dylan’s lyrics doesn’t quite carry the weight of Scripture (sarcastic understatement) I think this line is particularly apropos today, just as it was when he penned it in 1965.

(Dylan also wrote some nonsense about God and Abraham having a discussion as He sent the patriarch marching down Highway 61. Again, no theologian…)

Tonight I’ve been marinating in 1 John 4. And, I have to tell you, verses 18 and 19 – words I have read many times over the years – hit me with a fresh wave of peace.

¹⁸ There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. ¹⁹ We love because he first loved us. (ESV)

We have a choice. We can live life in fear and anxiety – worrying about the future or the past or the present or our retirement or our jobs or the person who is displeased with us or whether Minnesota will be able to hold their own against Green Bay (hey, football season is only three months away)…

Or, we can live rooted in the perfect love of Jesus. We can put our full faith in Him, opting to yield to God, recognizing His love and sovereignty, praying, praising, spending time in His Word…

When we realize the depth of God’s love – not as some abstract religious concept but His personal love for you – and when we live to seek Him first over everything, we see the folly of fear.

God is sovereign over everything. Nothing we face is beyond Him. And we trust in the Lord for He is love and He never changes. When we embrace His perfect love and fully trust in Him, His perfect love casts away the fear. After all, the two cannot coexist.

So we have a choice to make. We can choose to worry about our troubles (real and imagined) and live a life of turmoil. Or we can faithfully follow God through Jesus Christ, trusting Him, casting our cares on Him, seeking His will first and foremost, understanding our circumstances do not define us.

Which will you choose?

⁹ Now when he rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons. ¹⁰ She went and told those who had been with him, as they mourned and wept.¹¹ But when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they would not believe it. – Mark 16:9-11 (ESV)

Shattered.

The disciples had to be absolutely shattered.

Try to imagine how the disciples felt on that Saturday.

They had spent the past three years with Jesus. They had listened to His teachings. They had witnessed so many miracles from His hands: the blind receiving sight; the lame healed and able to walk; healing the woman with the issue of blood; healing the Roman centurion’s son from a long distance away; pulling a coin from a fish’s mouth to pay their tax; feeding thousands of people to full with fives small barley loaves and two fish – with leftovers; calming the storm on the sea; walking on water; raising Lazarus from the dead.

Etc.

They walked into Jerusalem with Jesus riding a donkey, the people cheering Him and laying palm fronds before Him.

The people thought Jesus had come to overthrow the powers that be in Israel and take over.

Within days it all appeared to come crumbling down.

One of their own – Judas Iscariot – betrayed Jesus. His disloyalty was so great that, after that when anyone who shared his name in Scripture is referred to as “Judas (not Iscariot)”. Indeed, 2000 years later, betrayers are called Judases.

Jesus was arrested. After seeing Him slip away from the Pharisees and Sadducees so many times before, they saw Jesus put up no fight. In fact, when Peter acted to protect The Lord, drawing his sword and cutting off the ear of the Roman servant, Jesus responded with a strong rebuke, healing the servant’s ear.

There was Peter’s foretold thrice denial of knowing Jesus that came to pass as Jesus was in the midst of His horrific night of beating, scourging, kangaroo trials, humiliation, conviction, and crucifixion band death.

How could things have gone so wrong?

Mark tells us the disciples, overcome with grief and, probably confusion and fear as well. They had lost hope. They could not believe Mary when she told them Jesus was alive, and she had seen Him.

They couldn’t see the Truth for the “facts” around them.

Seeing the situation through their eyes, all hope evaporated.

But the real truth – the reality to be made obvious when Jesus appears to His disciples – would soon be revealed. The Holy Spirit would indwell them as promised. They would see Jesus ascend into heaven. These men who were, on this Saturday between Jesus’ death and resurrection, experiencing the lowest, most painful, most anxious time in their lives, would go out into the world, boldly sharing the message of Jesus Christ – all but one giving their lives for the sake of the Gospel.

On this Saturday, the disciples couldn’t see it. They couldn’t wrap their minds around all that had happened in such a short amount of time.

Their inability to comprehend the events of Friday had no effect on the glory of God coming to fruition in that sealed tomb early Sunday morning.

¹³ Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, “I believed, and so I spoke,” we also believe, and so we also speak, ¹⁴ knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. ¹⁵ For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.

¹⁶ So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self^[d] is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. ¹⁷ For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,¹⁸ as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. – 2 Corinthians 4:13-18 (ESV)

Rejoice! He is risen!

Scan not a friend with a microscopic glass. You know his faults, now let his foibles pass. – Sir Frank Crisp.

Judge not, lest ye be judged. – Jesus Christ.

For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. – Newton’s Third Law of Motion.

Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity, and the rod of his fury will fail. – Proverbs 22:8

Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. – Galatians 6:7-8

What am I reaping in my life? Better look at what I’m sowing.

Sow live, reap love.

Sow judgement, reap judgement.

I need to remember, before I speak, before a thought even develops in my head: I don’t know what I don’t know. And what I do “know” is highly suspect. Only God is Truth.

Love one another. Do not judge. We never know the whole story.

¹⁵ Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. ¹⁶ Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. ¹⁷ And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. – Colossians 3:15-17 (ESV)

Can I let you in on a little secret? Ok… it’s not really a secret . Let’s just call it insight – something God is still working on me about. I’m very stubborn and thick, so it takes me a little longer than the average bear to get a hint.

Thankfully the Lord isn’t going to give up on me.

Here’s my insight – and it’s very simple and obvious yet profoundly true.

Here it is: if we want to live a life of true, deep, lasting peace, the peace that passes all human understanding, we have to trust in Jesus fully and completely and live by the precepts found in God’s Word.

God says love our enemies and pray for them, so we have to love and pray for them.

God says seek His kingdom first, so we need to set aside our own agendas and seek the Lord”s will first.

God says trust in Him with all our hearts and lean not on our own understanding, so we need to stop trying to figure everything out and trust in His absolute sovereignty.

God says don’t worry about anything, so we must set those anxious thoughts and, instead,focus on the Lord and what He has to say about life and our situations, for that is Truth.

God says forgive, so we must forgive.

God says love Him above all else and love others, so love.

God says be generous of spirit, so give yourself with much love and joy.

God says pray, so pray.

God says follow Jesus, so follow Jesus.

It only makes sense that, if we want the peace only Jesus gives, then we need to follow Him in faith and let Him form our thoughts and opinions, light our path, and make us salt and light.

You are so loved, dear friend. Rest in the Lord and sleep well.