“The period of meditation is
useful for personal consideration of Scripture, personal prayer, and personal
intercession…Spiritual experiments have no place here.”
“This time for meditation does
not allow us to sink into the void and bottomless pit of aloneness, rather it
allows us to be alone with the Word. In so doing it gives us solid ground on
which to stand and clear guidance for the steps we have to take.” Dietrich
Bonhoeffer, Life Together, Fortress
Press, 2015 (Reader’s Edition), page 60.
We are called to delightfully
meditate on the Word of the Lord day and night (Psalm 1). The follower of
Christ who mediates on His Word develops roots in His Word, feeding the soul,
informing the day, drawing life from the Vine (John 15). Are we convinced that
without Jesus Christ we can do nothing (John 15:5)? If we are convinced of this
we will pant after His Word as the deer pants for the water, our souls will
yearn for the Word of God and the Presence of God (Psalm 42).
While we experience the Word
in communion with one another, and while we learn to hear the Word collectively
as the people of God, we are also called to know and experience and hear the
Word as individual sons and daughters of the living God. The two are
interrelated and inform each other. If Jesus Christ is the Word of God, then
the Word of God is our life – not the dry dead-letter word that is twisted and
tarnished by man, but the sacramental Word of God through which God pours His
grace and fullness in Jesus Christ. We crucified the Word of God some 2,000
years ago, it is wise that we not do it again.
I don’t know what observations
led Bonhoeffer to warn against “spiritual experiments” but it is a warning I
endorse. The enigma associated with the warning is that while we should not
seek “experience” per se, that when we seek and encounter God in Christ that we
will experience that encounter – after all it is a relationship. We may be
surprised at the experience, it may not be what we expect – there are times it
may be in low octaves and other times it may be in high octaves – there may be
times it is exuberantly demonstrable and other times it is almost imperceptible
– the Psalms reflect this.
There are times when we are encouraged to seek a particular experiential facet
of our relationship with God in Christ – consider Paul’s words about the peace
of God in Philippians Chapter 4 – we are God’s children and we can seek the
good things of our Father. Therefore, it is important to distinguish what we
mean when we teach that we are not to seek experience for the sake of
experience and should beware of spiritual experiments. We are to seek nothing
outside our Lord Jesus and seeking experience for the sake of experience can
lead us into delusion and deceit – we can think we are something when we are
nothing. Even worse, we can use our experience as a litmus test for truth and
fellowship.
It is a sad thing to see a
congregation that does not experience God; it is also a sad thing to see a
congregation that seeks experience for its own sake. Our lives must always be
about Jesus Christ, first, last, and always – only in Him do we have light and
life and proper contextual understanding and wisdom.
Meditation in the Word guards
us against seeking experience for the sake of experience because the Word
informs our hearts and minds, its roots go deep into our souls. The deeper the
roots of the Word in the soul the straighter the tree will grow up into Christ
Jesus. When our days begin in conversation with the Word they can continue in
conversation with the Word and the Word will form and mold our experience in
conformity with the image of Jesus Christ (Romans 8:29). Life must always be
about Jesus Christ – outside of Christ there is no life. If Christ is our life…then
how strange not to center our thoughts and hearts in Him…how strange not to meditate
on Him and His Word both day and night.
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