Web meditation 4 March 2009
Yesterday we discussed studying as a way to love God by learning about God. However, loving God with all of our mind is not just an intellectual field. Our minds control our bodies, and what we do and experience with our bodies effects our minds. That is why I place formation and reflection in the category loving God with all of our mind. You can think for formation as a broader more wholistic concept then education. Formation occurs often through experiences that teach us something about God. The experience of sitting with someone who is sick, of responding to them with compassion, can teach us about God's compassion. The experience of giving of our time, talent, and treasure can form us to not be owned by our time, talent, and treasure. The experience of helping the oppressed can form our thirst for justice.
Now experiencing things is only part of the process. Reflection, time taken to process mentally our experience, is necessary to help integrate our learning with our experience. It is when we take the time to recognize the connections, to associate references from our study of scripture and the teachings of the church with our experiences that we begin to be formed 'down deep in our bones'. That is how we get to the point where living the Christian life is as natural to us as breathing. That is how we love God with our entire mind.
Today's question isn't so much a question as an assignment:
Pay attention today. Allow your mind to notice the things you experience and notice what bible stories or church traditions they remind you of.
This meditation is also posted on the website of the Church of the Resurrection
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