Ponder

I always loved the word "ponder." Maybe it is the fact it contains the word "pond." I see someone sitting by a pond early in the morning with the mist rising off the top, holding a cup of coffee, staring out lost in thought about something that really matters. Reflection, meditation, deep thinking..it is more than study for the sake of facts. It is really trying to understand. As I have pondered the mind of Christ seriously each morning for the past three years I am getting it that if we are going to get Jesus and what He is really saying to us we are going to have to slow down and listen carefully. We are loosing the ability to savor life. Constant movement does not allow for pondering. The old days of sitting by a fire at night with no electronic devises listening to the crackling of water molecules bursting through the membrane of the wood and sending sparks flying, with the sounds of crickets rubbing their legs together, and momma singing softly while she finished up a little bit of sewing before turning in lent itself to reflection. We have to have apps today that create that can of pondering environment.

Those get it moments should come pretty often for the pondering Christian. Scales should regularly fall from our eyes. That moment of enlightenment should invade our mundane world more often. We should be saying more often "Now I get it, now I see, now I understand." Discoveries of the treasures stored up in Jesus should be an everyday occurrence. There are certainly enough to keep us in the discovery business for a long time. This present text reveals that Jesus expected His disciples to understand the context of life. Jesus continues conversations along themes that may have started hours earlier. He brought up the leaven of the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herodians as they rowed across the lake, but the context began while they were on land. He expected them to keep up, pay attention, and put it together. He expected that they were tuned into what He was trying to teach them. Too often our lives are about bits and pieces, unconnected events and information without context for what Jesus is teaching us. Jesus is teaching us, His disciples, daily as we do life. But, do we connect the dots any better than they did? Do we really believe that Jesus through the Spirit of truth is discipling us each day? If so, we need to pay attention and connect the dots and stay in context as He moves us along in our learning.

If this is going to happen then we are going to have to have quiet times of reflection. I am at my daughter's house in Texas, and up early before others to get this time alone with Jesus. He will provide tutoring for each of his disciples 24/7. But, as grand kids wake up,,,even now one of them is reaching for the remote to the Gameboy....my time with Jesus is being pulled away, or is it? Maybe He is merely starting a new lesson to teach me. I better take some time to ponder this.