Once I bought a book on mindful writing at an excellent Christian bookstore. I didn’t look through it because of my intense trust in the organization by some well-known and trusted Christians. I was shocked when I started reading it, and I will have to confess I never finished it. Mindful walks noticing my breathing, the feel of the breeze on my skin or in my hair, and the smells were interesting, but when asked to taste leaves and flowers to get the whole experience of this mindful walk seemed silly and maybe even dangerous. I did it a few times with no side effects, but it never gave me a peaceful, easy feeling. I lost interest and went back to mind-numbing mind wandering.
Other than fish, bread, grapes, kernels of wheat, figs, we aren’t given a lot of info about Jesus’ diet, but I don’t think he ate leaves to stay aware of his surroundings and remain in the present. He was fully human and fully God, and if he was born with a sinful nature as we are, He never tuned into it as a mind-altering possibility. When Jesus died on the cross as God’s provision as a perfect sacrifice for us, He reversed everything that Adam had messed up. When he cried from the cross, “It is finished!” He meant everything wrong in the spiritual realm was corrected, and we once again have constant access to God and all that He is. I John 4:15-17 says that God is in us, and we are in God. That’s pretty constant availability, I’d say. So, mindfulness for the Christian is living in an awareness of God. Living from his love for us is beyond measure, using all the spiritual gifts in the heavenly realms that Christ makes available to us and are infinitely more than we can imagine or ask. We lack nothing, but are we mindful of it?
The Bible says to taste and see that the Lord is good. The Spirit of God is like the wind, we cannot see it or know from where it is coming, but we can feel it and know its effect on us and others. We have only to be mindful of God in us and around us. Every day with mindfulness, we can walk every minute knowing that it is His breath in our lungs, his Spirit keeping us in constant communion with the One who made everything we see, taste, smell, hear and feel and gave us the ability to enjoy them. Mindfulness is being aware of all the spiritual gifts we are given and using them.
We are never alone or left to wander or wonder. God is with us and wanting to talk with us; we only have to stay mindful of Him!
Recent Comments