Meditate | Adverse Learning

Meditate is a monthly column in which insights gained from meditating on the Word are shared. We welcome your insights, too, in the form of comments or even your own article. Contact us if you'd like to write a submission for this column. -Editor

“Cease to do evil, learn to do good” (Isaiah 1:16-17).

“In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider: surely God has appointed the one as well as the other” (Ecclesiastes 7:14).

The other day I read a very clear statement that speaks to an ongoing issue in my spiritual growth: it’s okay to feel angry, it’s not okay to act on it. This statement came into my mind like a drop of soap in dirty water. After reading it, I went about my day and had the idea to track when I felt angry—to approach this feeling with curiosity, to “consider in the day of adversity.” The only “action” I would take when I felt angry was to make a note of what triggered my anger. It was surprisingly satisfying, rather than to have no action to take when I am feeling anger, to have something specific I would do—write it down, or in most cases, dictate it to a note on my phone! After doing this just for one day, I felt an ease, and less fear when the anger came up, because it no longer meant I acted out in a way I would regret a moment later.

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Meditate | Spiritual Transformation as Erosion by Water

Meditate is a monthly column in which insights gained from meditating on the Word are shared. We welcome your insights, too, in the form of comments or even your own article. Contact us if you'd like to write a submission for this column. -Editor

“And behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east. His voice was like the sound of many waters; and the earth shone with His glory” (Ezekiel 43:2).

“His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters; He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength” (Revelation 1:15-16).

“And it shall be that every living thing that moves, wherever the rivers go, will live…for they will be healed, and everything will live wherever the river goes” (Ezekiel 47:9).

“‘Living waters’ are often mentioned in the Word, and by them are meant truths that come to us from the Lord and are received. These are living, because the Lord is life itself…The Lord also…opens the spiritual parts of our mind, and imparts to us the affection of truth; and the spiritual affection of truth is the very life of heaven within us” (Apocalypse Explained 483 as quoted in What Would Love Do? By John Odhner and Sasha Silverman).

“ ...the earth is full of the knowledge of Jehovah, as the waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 11:9).

The Bishop of the General Church of the New Jerusalem released a statement a couple of weeks ago saying the policy of the General Church would not be changing with regard to women’s ordination. My meditation on the ideas in the passages above along with processing my own thoughts and feelings about the state of the General Church, of which I am a member, led me to writing the following poem as I considered the prospect and process of an organizational shift in the General Church that would allow for the ordination of women as priests. I offer it here for your own contemplation.

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Meditate | Letting Go of the Outcome: Reality is Better

Meditate is a monthly column in which insights gained from meditating on the Word are shared. We welcome your insights, too, in the form of comments or even your own article. Contact us if you'd like to write a submission for this column. -Editor

"Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others." Philippians 2: 3-4 (NIV)

"This is what Jehovah has said: 'Render judgment in the morning and snatch spoil from the hand of the oppressor, so that my fury does not go forth like fire and burn (and no one to quench it) because of the wickedness of their deeds.' (Jeremiah 21:12)

Rendering judgment is saying what is true. Snatching spoil from the hand of the oppressor is doing good deeds that embody love for others. The fire stands for the hellish punishment experienced by people who do not act that way—that is, who live by the lies that hatred spawns. In the literal meaning, this kind of fiery fury is attributed to Jehovah, but in the inner sense it is exactly the opposite." Secrets of Heaven 1861

The quote from Jeremiah caught my eye in my reading; maybe because it seems thoroughly slathered in appearances. Sure, God is talking about his own fury burning us on account of our misdeeds, that appearance is all over the place, but telling us to steal? It begs further contemplation. The meaning Swedenborg relays is entirely simple: say truth (in the morning) and do good deeds that embody love for others. But why put it in terms of stealing?

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Meditate | What To Do When We're Down

Meditate is a monthly column in which insights gained from meditating on the Word are shared. We welcome your insights, too, in the form of comments or even your own article. Contact us if you'd like to write a submission for this column. -Editor

I read some of the book of Joel recently and had the opportunity to meditate on what I read. What stuck with me is a short list of things to do when I find myself in a spiritual rut, a time when it feels like “joy has withered away” (1:12). It may not only feel like I have no joy, I may feel utterly devastated, with no will for what my life requires of me and a severe lack of supportive thoughts running through my mind—“the new wine is dried up, the oil fails” (1:10).

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Meditate | Scripture Surprise

Meditate is a monthly column in which insights gained from meditating on the Word are shared. We welcome your insights, too, in the form of comments or even your own article. Contact us if you'd like to write a submission for this column. -Editor

The following may be obvious to many of you, but I just heard an old favorite in a new way. It's the 23rd Psalm. It all began with that first verse, “The Lord is my shepherd—I shall not want.” I always took this as just the first of several stand-alone sayings throughout the psalm, but as such I’ve never got much meaning from it. More recently I’ve lingered over the word “want,” understanding it as a somewhat old-fashioned way of saying “lack”; as in, “The Lord is my shepherd, [and therefore I won’t lack anything].” Taken by itself, this has really helped me. But it gets better.

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Meditate | The Daily Reckoning

Meditate is a monthly column in which insights gained from meditating on the Word are shared. We welcome your insights, too, in the form of comments or even your own article. Contact us if you'd like to write a submission for this column. -Editor

“If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness, if you extend your soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light shall dawn in the darkness, and your darkness shall be as the noonday. The Lord will guide you continually” (Isaiah 58:9-11).

I find taking actions from a place of love and charity and hanging onto a sense of responsibility for the future, for the outcome, are like oil and water. The two perspectives don’t mix:

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