James M. Tour,
Professor of Chemistry, Computer Science,
Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science,
Rice University
[April 29, 2013]–
What does it mean to meditate on Scripture? It is not an ethereal state where my mind is out of touch with reality. Jesus said that, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind.” (Luke 10:27) So my mind is always with me and I am quite conscious of all my thoughts and feelings in that time.
In the context that I am using, meditation is the contemplative reading and reflection upon portions from the Bible. It’s a slow and deliberate repetitive reading of a passage as I ask God to confirm it in my life and to speak to me through the passage. It’s a pondering upon His thoughts, as recorded in the written word—written on the tablet of my heart and mind. Ultimately, it is the application of that passage to my life as God speaks to me through the very pages of those ancient writings. And He does speak, as I will share here regarding situations in my own life.
Walking briskly across campus to what was destined to be an intense and emotionally-charged meeting, I was working through, in my mind, the strategy and words that I would forcibly speak. I was keenly focused and my jaw began to stiffen with intensity. Then it hit me. A passage from Proverbs 3:3 that I had meditated upon and memorized, together with my wife and children, years earlier:
Do not let kindness and truth leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.
The word “kindness” was being underscored in my heart. Immediately, I said, “Yes, Lord. Let me not forget to address these people with kindness. Let it be around my neck, even like a choke-hold if need be, lest I say something unkind and something I’ll regret.”
And God did bless precisely as I prayed. The meeting was calm and I was able to present all my points and achieve my goals. In the process, I left that meeting with the sweetest of feelings for those administrators. What could have been a heated battle resulted in oneness of mind and spirit simply by obedience to the scriptural commands. As the Scriptures say, “a gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” Proverbs 15: 1
As you commit Scriptures to memory, through meditation on those passages, you will have a wealth of truth from which to extract guidance. I have seen near feeding frenzies occur in universities where professors have attacked administrators with the knives of the tongue.
But even the most heated of situations can be calmed and diffused with just one word, or one thought, guided by the Holy Spirit from God’s word. Recently such a diffusing of a volatile situation arose by my sending just one short e-mail note of encouragement and peace to all the parties concerned. A bloodbath, of sorts, was quelled.
A colleague who had been the leader of the frenzy said to me, “No wonder everyone likes you,” because after that e-mail, there was little left to argue about.
“Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God.” Matthew 5: 9