PONDER: verb, 1. to consider deeply; meditate. 2. to weigh carefully in the mind. – Syn. 1. Reflect, cogitate, deliberate, ruminate.
Witness & Ponder came about because I wanted to share pictures of Christ moving in others (Witness) and deep thoughts that make me wonder, question and ultimately affirm the life of grace that I have chosen in Christ (Ponder).
My last post portrayed my personal witness; this post cracks open the door of my mind, which can be a beautiful, yet scary place. It is a disparate land of lush contemplation and spiritual inspiration that cohabitates with scattered thoughts, notions, judgments and fears. In order for pondering to take seed, every aspect of my brain needs to harmonize in order to sprout anything of value. Otherwise day dreams would reign without reason, fears would frolic without divine assurances, and fragmented thoughts would never have a home.
To ponder is a gift of a surplus sight, it is a discipline, but mostly it is the beauty of a visceral thought that won’t let you go until you search out its destiny. The latter has been mostly my experience – I can’t boast in discipline; I can only boast in the blessed earnestness of the Holy Spirit.
To be able to ponder something in this day and age is a challenge with all the distractions of life snatching away any focus I can muster. The noise of life alone bombards my senses; like elusive, hovering gnats, that return to annoy you no matter how many times you swipe at them. (Nature’s noise is the exception here). You know what I’m talking about, life: TV, kids, pets, cell phone, neighbor’s radio, traffic, grinding breaks of the garbage truck…. all the way down to the hearty din of my own disjointed thoughts!
But there are times when something will capture my attention enough that I need to lower the volume of life in order to attend to it. It is here, in my pondering, that revelation and inspiration are born. It is a profound process that reaps interesting results. I don’t always get answers, but I experience the beauty of the process because the process always includes God. The internet can provide all the information I may need, but knowledge falls short of comfort, insight, transformation and meaning.
For many years my inspiration for “pondering” has been Mary, the mother of Jesus. Here you have a young girl who chooses to ponder her circumstances, rather than freak out, complain, deny or run away. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. (Luke 2:19). I know she had personal visits from an angel to assure her, but think about that for a second – she could have freaked out, complained, denied, or ran away then too! An uncommon teenager, facing uncommon circumstances, who chose to plumb the depths of her situation with God and ultimately chose uncommon trust. Yeah, I think she was one incredible young gal!
You don’t need life shaking circumstances to ponder; you can ponder anywhere – at least I do. Sometimes I’ll look at something; like my new, handcrafted kitchen table and take a moment to acknowledge the people who imagined it, created it and assembled it in order for my family to eat on it and serve on it. Then I look around my kitchen and imagine how overflowing it would be if the people who had imagined, created and assembled everything in it were standing there. Suddenly my kitchen has new meaning and gratitude flows.
So, I invite you to ponder with me. Bring God into your thoughts for His truths, let Jesus reign over your fears and allow The Holy Spirit to usher your fragmented thoughts to a place of new meaning and gratitude. Mary did it; we can too.