Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
- Step 11
Meditation is stupid.
I can't meditate because I can't sit still long enough.
I can't stop my thoughts, and my mind is never quiet, so I can't meditate.
I have ADD, so meditation is impossible.
I don't meditate because I'm a Christian and I don't participate in any of that New Age stuff.
Meditation is boring.
Meditation is too hard. I don't understand how to do that.
I am sure that I could go on and on with variations of why people think that they can't and don't meditate. And they're pretty bogus. Now, before I go any further or anyone begins arguing with what I just wrote, we need to be clear about what we're talking about. So, let's take a quick look at the definition of meditation:
meditate
meditated; meditating
intransitive verb
1 :to engage in contemplation or reflection. He meditated long and hard before announcing his decision.
2 :to engage in mental exercise (such as concentration on one's breathing or repetition of a mantra) for the purpose of reaching a heightened level of spiritual awareness
transitive verb
1 :to focus one's thoughts on :reflect on or ponder over. He was meditating his past achievements.
2 :to plan or project in the mind :intend, purpose. He was meditating revenge.
What most of us think of when we read or hear the word meditation is a specific type of Hindu Yogi based meditation that become widespread and more well known in the United States as Transcendental Meditation during the 1960s. If I were to say to you that we need to spend at least 30 minutes every day reading, what would that make you think of? Would you think that meant reading your Bible? Reading non-fiction works? Reading whatever you happened to pick up, whether that meant fiction, non-fiction, spiritual or non-spiritual? Or would you perhaps even try to add up the seconds here and there throughout the day where you read signs? What about social media? Many of us spend far more that 30 minutes a day reading posts on social media.
Does this analogy seem silly? To read is to look at and comprehend the meaning of written or printed matter by mentally interpreting the characters or symbols of which it is composed. It's that simple. I am reading this as I type it, and you are reading it now. If someone says we need to read every day, that's open. Now if someone says we need to read our Bible every day, that's more specific. The same can be applied to the word meditate, which boils down to focused thinking. In fact, I dare say that everyone reading this has meditated, maybe even often and regularly. You think not? Do you ever worry?
Worry is negative mediation. It is a focused pondering of fear based possibilities. And if someone says that they've been worried all day long, none of us think that means that they didn't truly think of one single thing outside of what they were worried about or that they got still, quiet and didn't do anything all day but concentrate their attention on that fear. But we understand that the prevalent thought focus, what their thinking returned to repeatedly during the day, that whenever their mind wandered from whatever task or activity or conversation was at hand, it turned to this anxiety. Worry is meditation.
But like the reading example being narrowed by adding Bible reading (which by the way was an example. I did not actually say that you need to spend x amount of time reading the Bible), the idea of meditation here is more specific than any random focused thinking. That is true. It's obviously not about focused thinking on the upcoming new Star Wars film. So what is Step 11 talking about? This step was first published in 1939, nearly three decades before the understanding of the word mediation became what we think of today. I am most certainly not, I repeat, not, saying that you can't get in one of the common positions of this style of meditation and use it in a positive way, or that a person can't use a variation of the common modern understanding of meditation with the Eleventh Step. You can. And if it works for you, awesome. But I will say that it is not what the founders of Step based recovery where writing of when they used the word mediation, and I will issue a word of warning regarding Eastern based meditation and recovery, especially Christian recovery. The warning is this: much of the Eastern based meditation is based on looking inward at self, focusing on self and trying to tune self in such a way as to improve and center or calm self. Not all of it, but much. Recovery literature is clear that we must be rid of self, and Jesus said to follow Him we must deny self. I can't fix self with self, nor is a good path to recovery to focus on self. Selfishness and self-centeredness is the root of our problem.
The spiritual mediation I advocate for the start of the day and what the recovery founders of step work practiced was a God-focused meditation. Pondering and thinking about God, His will, His truth, His love and what He wants to do in and through us.This can be made clear with a closer look at Step 11. What are we trying to accomplish in this step and how? Sought through prayer and meditation, this is the how. Now for the what. There are three objectives:
a) to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him - we are first seeking to improve our conscious contact with God. The object here is not to blank out consciousness or conscious thought. It is to make our consciousness aware of the presence of God with us and improve our communion and relationship with Him.
b) praying only for knowledge of His will for us - here we are seeking guidance, for our day and life, direction. We are also reminding ourselves, focusing, thinking on and pondering the changes God wants to make in our life, our attitudes and actions that will be Godly and loving and our tendencies to think and act contrary to that, setting ourselves to surrender to God's will and set aside our own.
c) and the power to carry that out - focusing on being controlled by grace and trusting God to enable us to do His will, remembering that it is not self will or determination but His power that does in and through us.
In the first approach to meditation it means taking a written text from the Bible, devotional or prayer book or a song of worship and focusing our thoughts and attention on it. What does this say about or how does it help me understand better the nature of who God is and His love toward me? Does it address an area in my spiritual life that needs to improve? Does it encourage me to continue in the areas where I am on track? Basically, how does this apply to me, my relationship to Daddy and my understanding of Him? Thinking about spiritual texts or truths helps us to improve our consciousness of God, to understand Him better and to set our minds outward on Him and His will. How can I apply what is in this to better my relationship with Him and to be of greater service to Him and others?
In case anyone feels that I am trying to put words in the mouths of the founders of recovery, I will let their actions and words do the speaking.
Dr. Bob’s morning devotion consisted of a short prayer, a 20-minute study of a familiar verse from the Bible, and a quiet period of waiting for directions as to where he, that day, should find use for his talent.
- DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers, p. 314
If we belong to a religious denomination which requires a definite morning devotion, we attend to that .... If not members of religious bodies, we sometimes select and memorize a few set prayers which emphasize the principles we have been discussing. There are many helpful books also. Suggestions about these may be obtained from one’s priest, minister, or rabbi. Be quick to see where religious people are right. Make use of what they offer.
- Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 87
More on the views on morning quiet time by the founders of 12 Step recovery can be found in the following article, for those interested: A Look at “Meditation” in Early A.A.
Moving on to the second part of meditation, seeking guidance, we seek to understand what we can do to incorporate awareness of our relationship with Daddy in all that we plan to do throughout the day, remembering our first priority is to live in an attitude of not my will but Yours be done and to love God and love others. If we know of certain issues and situations we will be facing, we ask for wisdom, guidance and strength to handle them in a Godly way. We are praying for His will, but it is clear in the Bible that it is God's will to take our requests and needs to Him. So we pray for those also, but we need to be careful not to tell God what to do or how to do it. Once again it comes down to surrendering to His will.
Finally we rest and quiet ourselves in grace and trust that Daddy will provide what we need to walk in love and victory for the day, as long as we remain surrendered to Him and willing to do His will. That is about all there really is to morning meditation. A time of silence during our quiet time is nice and helpful, but the key thing is to turn our attention to Daddy, who He is, our relationship with Him and to surrender our will to His, seeking guidance, wisdom and strength regarding what that would be and how to go about it.
But that is not all there is to our spiritual meditation. Our nightly review is also a form of meditation. This is a case where we do turn our thoughts to self, at first. But we don't end there. We end by turning our attention back to Daddy.
When we retire at night, we constructively review our day. Were we resentful, selfish, dishonest or afraid? Do we owe an apology? Have we kept something to ourselves which should be discussed with another person at once? Were we kind and loving toward all? What could we have done better? Were we thinking of ourselves most of the time? Or were we thinking of what we could do for others, of what we could pack into the stream of life? But we must be careful not to drift into worry, remorse or morbid reflection, for that would diminish our usefulness to others. After making our review we ask God's forgiveness and inquire what corrective measures should be taken.
- Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 86
I add to the above that after asking for forgiveness and seeking guidance on what to do to learn and grow and correct, spending some time, as in the morning, focusing on the nature of who God is and His love for me. Deeper relationship and conscious contact with Him is the first goal, regardless of the time of day. Which brings up a final aspect to this kind of meditation. Much like the negative meditation of worry, positive, God-tuned meditation does not have to be a scheduled or timed or concentrated effort or action. Since I haven't addressed it so far, this is not trying to conform Christian faith to secular thinking and practices. The Bible repeatedly refers to meditation and meditating on the word and truth of God.
There are many verses that would apply, and I am not going to list them here. A quick Google search can provide lists of scriptures referring to or regarding meditation. But there are a couple that I feel most needed to be included here.
I will meditate on Your precepts and reflect upon Your ways. I will delight myself in Your statutes; I will not forget Your words.
- Psalm 119:15-16
Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, (meditate) dwell on these things.
- Philippians 4:8
Just as in moments not concentrating or actively thinking about a task or particular subject can find our minds wondering to worry and anxiety, we can have those moments turn to praise, worship, promises, truths and things of God. How awesome would it be to go through the day where our stray thoughts were thoughts of Him?! That is meditating and being in prayer all day! It's what our minds are returning to that they are focusing, chewing, pondering on, whether that is consciously chosen or not, that we are meditating on. It is what we are preoccupied with. I can assure you, that it is not our natural tendency for these times to be turned toward Daddy, toward who He is and our relationship with Him. But if during those moments when our thoughts turn to fear, self loathing, condemnation of self and others, idle fantasy or foolishness, etc. we make a conscious choice to turn them to the true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, etc., as determined by the word of God, we will find those types of thinking becoming more and more our nature. We can purposely stick our mental mp3 player on repeat with a song that keeps our hearts attuned to Him, His love for us and our relationship with Him. This is meditation.
Every moment of our spirit and mind turned to thinking of Daddy and our relationship with Him is a good one. When that thinking is focused and purposeful it is meditation. When our minds our quiet and attuned to the presence, inspiration, guidance and comfort of the Spirit, that is also meditation. And when our heart is so tuned to Him that our stray and random thoughts are of Him, praising Him, or seeking to get close to Him, that is walking in a Godly meditative spirit. It doesn't have to be done in any particular place, position or manner. It isn't complicated or hard. If you can't go 10 seconds without thinking about the laundry or work or whatever, that is fine. Let those other thoughts come and go and return to look to Him, or even pray about how to incorporate Him into whatever your mind wants to go to. It's not an issue to beat yourself up over, and there is no merit badge to be earned based on how much time or how well we meditate. But the more we make mediation, thinking, focusing, pondering, chewing on and seeking Him, relationship with and understanding of, along with guidance and direction to remain in His will, the more freedom, victory, peace, joy and awareness of His love for us and others we will experience.
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