Don’t Give Up Your ‘M’

It is interesting that as I prepared to write this, an old MTV advert crossed my mind. I don’t remember the beginning but there was this row of men with alphabet shaped boards. in the advert, once a boss-like man says “give me an ‘O’”, the guy with the ‘O’ would raise his board. All went well till it was time for the guy with the ‘M’. For reasons best known to him, this guy refused to give up his ‘M’ and before long, we were watching a suspense filled movie where all the goons ran after him to get the prized ‘M’. Of course they couldn’t get it.

The wine description is classier but tea is ok

This clip sorts of explains how important meditation is to us. no matter how difficult it gets, we can't give it up. I already acknowledged that meditating on the scriptures isn’t something I do well, but having given it a lot of thought, it is something we cannot do without. Honestly, there is inexhaustible wealth and depth of understanding in the word of God. Every time we study, there is fresh insight especially  to address our present needs in Christ. 

There is time to read the word for the sake of it. For example, when stuck in the omnipresent Lagos traffic which puts you at the mercy of the lewdest lyrics radio stations can spin, you have to read or listen to something just to keep your sanity. Merely reading the Bible at that point is a major blessing for it engages your mind enough to prevent it from soaking up unhealthy thrash. But at other times, we have to take the word like wine; swirl it gently in a glass; move our noses closer and inhale it; take a sip; savour the sip; turn it over and over it our mouths, let every part of our tongue really taste it such that it knows just when it turns from slightly sour to very sweet and back to sharp. 

The way it is, for us to truly grow and mature as disciples of Jesus Christ, we cannot be content to study without meditating. It is in the place of prayerfully turning over the word in our minds that the spirit of God breathes on it and enlightens our minds. Beyond our eyes or ears, our minds have to truly engage with the word of God in the place of meditation. That is how we renew it, that we are conformed into His image. There is time to glance and there is time to keep a steadfast gaze. We cannot sacrifice one for the other. It is by keeping our gaze on Him that we become transformed-and this transformation is the reason for our Christian journey. Else, it would have been ok to die immediately we accepted and confessed Jesus. 

Think about the mystery of Jacob’s legendary animal husbandry (Genesis 30:37-43).

41 And it came to pass, whensoever the stronger cattle did conceive, that Jacob laid the rods before the eyes of the cattle in the gutters, that they might conceive among the rods.

 It says something about keeping our gaze on something, in this case, The word Himself:

I say this having already acknowledged that the nature of the minds of some of us is quite interesting, interesting enough to make meditation a big deal. However, the more we consider it, the more we will realise that for true growth, there is no getting around it. We suggested alternatives such as repeatedly praying the scriptures but we must not give up on training our minds to stay on the word. Today is a good day to start. No matter how difficult it is, don’t give up on meditation. Don’t give up on your ‘M’, or better still; don’t give up your ‘M’. If that MTV guy could beat the goons to it, the might of God will strengthen our minds to beat distractions to it.

My question for you, how did you learn to meditate on scriptures? Do you think it isn’t really a big deal? Do you know anyone who trained a flighty mind to become disciplined enough to stay on the word?

Thank you for your time.