Read This First—The Purpose of This Book (and How to Use It)

Both of my boys have incredible imaginations.

My younger son Tyler likes to use his imagination when he’s playing with his action figures. I love listening to the different voices he uses before he falls asleep at night. The best ones are when the rubber snakes are eating all of the village people who can’t seem to escape no matter how fast they try to run away. In the morning, his bed is covered with all sorts of make-believe items that were a part of his imaginary epic battle the night before.

My older son Josh, on the other hand, uses his imagination when he dreams. I love listening to his stories when he wakes up. I never know if he actually had a dream or if he’s making it up as he goes. Either way, it’s very entertaining! Last week he told me about a dream where he was in a boxing ring fighting off pepperonis and cheeseburgers that were attacking him and trying to take him away to their castle. He managed to defeat them, but not before a giant clown came down and started licking his face.

Believe it or not, when it comes to our spiritual lives, our imaginations are very useful. That’s not something you may be used to hearing, but our imaginations are very valuable tools in helping us become better followers of Jesus. When we use our imaginations, our world takes on a different dimension. Imagination allows us to dream about things that haven’t been created yet, to envision ourselves and others in different places and circumstances, even to discover things about ourselves that will be pivotal in our journey toward God.

Guided Meditation

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word meditation? If you’re like me, you get an image of some guy sitting cross-legged with his eyes closed, his arms spread out with his palms facing upward, humming to himself. While that may be an accurate picture for some religions, this isn’t at all what guided meditations are about in Christianity.

First of all, in the Bible, the word meditate, as best we can tell, literally means “to chew upon” over and over again—kind of like the way a dog chews on a bone. On special occasions, I give my dog Raider a nice big soup bone. I love watching him as he gnaws it over and over again, mulling it over in his mouth until he scrapes every last possible piece of meat off it. This is the image the Bible gives us for what it means to meditate: To “chew upon” God’s truth over and over again until we get every last ounce of nourishment from it. (Hence the title of this book!)

The Bible is meant to give us strength and to help us become more and more like Jesus himself. The Bible wasn’t written to make us smarter. It wasn’t written so that we could impress our friends with how many verses we’ve memorized or how much we know about God. The Word of God is meant to be consumed and digested. It’s meant to help us grow and transform into the kind of people we were created to be from the very beginning—people who live like Jesus and conduct themselves based on the truth that he’s here today, living in our souls. That’s the goal, isn’t it? To imitate him in every way? Only when we learn to live like that will we ever truly be fulfilled.

Now, the guided meditations in this book are different from Bible meditations: When you meditate on Scripture, you focus on and enter into the narrative of the biblical text; the subject matter of the guided mediations in this book are much broader—you’ll imagine yourself in various scenes and circumstances, sensing and responding to the images you see in your mind’s eye and the emotions they bring. Then after you’ve completed your Guided Mediation, you have the chance to write about what you experienced and connect it with Scripture.

The reason we’re using Guided Meditations in this book is because I’ve found them to be exciting tools for engaging the imagination— they bring the Word of God to life in ways that you’ve probably never experienced! It’s my desire that you see Jesus in brand-new ways as you uncover important aspects about your spiritual life.

So thanks for coming along for the ride. (And by the way, where’s your seatbelt? You’re going to need it. Using your imagination will be quite an adventure!)

How to Use This Book as an Individual:

1. Look through this book for a Guided Meditation that sounds interesting. You don’t have to start at the beginning.
2. Find a comfortable place where you feel relaxed. Take a deep breath, and then exhale slowly, allowing the cares of your day to disappear for a while. Pray and invite God to join you in this adventure.
3. Slowly read through the Guided Meditation or listen carefully as it’s read on the accompanying audio CD. As you do, use your imagination and enter into the story.
4. Next, take a few minutes to journal about what you experienced from the meditation. (Note: See the sidebar on what journaling is, and how it’s done.)
5. Take some time to read the accompanying Scripture reference(s) or listen carefully as Scripture is read on the accompanying audio CD.
6. Then take some time to answer the Questions for Reflection. (Feel free to write your answers and any other insights underneath each Question for Reflection—and even in the margins as well as in your own journal. Make this a book you’re not afraid to mark up with your thoughts!)
7. Share your experience with some good friends. Have them give it a try!

How to Use This Book with a Group:

1. Look through this book and find a Guided Meditation that you think will appeal to your particular group. Provide pens and paper (or group members can use their own journals if they have them).
2. Ask those in your group to get into comfortable, relaxed positions. Encourage them to take deep breaths and slowly exhale. Invite them to close their eyes if this helps them concentrate better.
3. Now invite them to listen to the Guided Meditation as you read it out loud or play it for them from the audio CD. Challenge them to use their imaginations and enter into the story.
4. After the reading, ask group members to take some time to journal about what they experienced. (Note: See the section below on what journaling is, and how it’s done.)

Journaling Defined (adapted from Ken Gire’s book, The Reflective Life):

“Keeping a regular written record of occurrences, experiences, and reflections of your life for the purpose of spiritual enrichment.”

 

The question is not what you look at, but what you see.

—Henry David Thoreau

BENEFITS OF KEEPING A JOURNAL

 

Journaling:

• Opens a dialogue with God about life.
• Helps you better understand who you are, where you’ve been, where you’re going, and what’s driving you there.
• Helps you develop as a human “being” instead of as a human “doing.”
• Gives you an opportunity to slow down from the hurried pace of life.
• Is an activity where God can show up in unbelievable ways!

HOW TO START JOURNALING…

You can invest in a nice leather-bound journal from a local bookstore or simply begin your journaling experience with a cheap spiral-bound notebook. I suggest you invest in a nicer journal because this is going to be something you’ll want to review years from now. Many men and women of faith use the spiritual exercise of journaling to help them deepen their relationships with God. So even if you’ve never tried it before, why not give it a shot?

 

• Take your journal, a pen or pencil, and your Bible to a quiet place where you can spend some uninterrupted time alone with God.
• Begin with a simple prayer. Something like this: “God, I’ve come here to spend some time with you. Please meet me here and help me as I try to express in writing what’s on my mind and in my soul.”
• If it helps to get your thoughts flowing, open your Bible and read a passage of Scripture, or you can simply open your journal and jump in.

The following are some suggested journal-entry ideas. Don’t feel the need to fill the page with writing. Write as much or as little as you feel God leading you to write. Then spend a few minutes reading through your entry when you’re done.

 

• Write your own prayer to God.
• Write a letter to God expressing how you feel about him, telling God something you’re thankful for or asking questions.
• Write a letter from God to you. What would God say to you about the way you’re living your life today?
• Simply write out how you’re feeling in relationship to God and the spiritual life.
• Make up some of your own poetry to express yourself.
• Go beyond words by drawing or doodling your thoughts to God.

5. Next, read the Scripture reference(s) included with the Guided Meditation (or listen carefully as Scripture is read on the accompanying audio CD) and get the group’s reaction to a few of the Questions for Reflection. This will be a great place to start a spiritual discussion with your group.

6. When you believe the conversation has run its course, be sure to ask for volunteers to read their journal entries aloud to the group.

7. Spend a few minutes in prayer as a group thanking God for giving you imaginations and for meeting you in this exercise.

8. Encourage students to try a few Guided Meditation exercises on their own.

How to Get the Most from the Audio CD

It’s often helpful to listen to another person read meditations or Scriptures so you can close your eyes and more easily let your imagination carry you into the narrative. So this book comes with an audio CD containing a selection of 15 narrated meditations from this book that you can use when you want to let someone else “tell you the story.”

Within each meditation track are two sub-tracks: 1) A reading of the meditation over music (the music fades to silence with enough time between sub-tracks to pause playback for journaling); 2) A reading of accompanying Bible passages over music (the music fades to silence with enough time before end of track to pause before the start of the next meditation track).

 

CD TRACK LIST:

1. The Celebration	9. In the Still of the Night
2. A Lonely Walk	10. The First Snow
3. What a Place!	11. Talk to Me
4. Saying Goodbye	12. Today Is the Day
5. Behind the Mask	13. Living in a Material World
6. The Most Painful Place	14. Dreaming Big Dreams
7. Taking Inventory	15. Forgiving the Unforgivable
8. The Struggle