Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long. (Ps. 119:97)
Expanded Passage: Psalm 119:97
Meditate. It can be defined as to think deeply or focus one’s mind for a period of time in silence.
My wife and I attended a Cursillo weekend at a Roman Catholic retreat center in southern Mississippi. During the first twenty-four hours, after surrendering our cell phones, we were expected to observe complete silence. I was sharing a room with a man I did not know whose wife was spending those same hours sharing a room with my wife. It was awkward, especially at first, but silence and meditation took on a powerfully redefined reality for me.
Reading, contemplating, and praying were activities where mandatory silence made meditation a forced necessity. “And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words” (Matt. 6:7). We also observed the Stations of the Cross, each depicted in a unique stained glass window. The only sound was the gentle reading of the scriptural basis for each of the various stations as we encountered them.
The initial awkwardness of the forced meditation transitioned to a welcome time away from the hustle and bustle to meditate—to listen, to ponder, to consider, to be thankful.
While the contemplative silence of some disciplines may seem a bit severe or restrictive, perhaps they have touched the essence of meditating as a counterbalance to the busyness and noise of our daily lives.
Practice contemplative silence as a counterbalance to a busy schedule.
HC Wilson is general superintendent emeritus of The Wesleyan Church. He and his wife, Debby, reside in New Brunswick, Canada.
© 2025 Wesleyan Publishing House. Reprinted from Light from the Word. Used by permission. Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.
