Mindful Christianity and how it relates to mindfulness meditation, which is mindfulness, is at the heart of Buddhist meditation and focuses on being fully awake. Unfortunately, we go through life with our minds more often asleep than awake to the dazzling beauty of the world around us at any given moment. Instead of engaging fully in life, we coast mindlessly through life, capturing a picture of a beautiful sunset and missing the experience of enjoying the evening itself.
Like a plane on autopilot, our minds subconsciously adjust to cope with the world, and we lose touch with the only time we have to love, feel, and experience life on its deepest conscious levels.
Mindfulness meditation teaches us how to pause and be aware of everything happening around us and experience each moment with renewed insight and appreciation for life itself. Mindfulness’s essence helps us see clearly the details and consciously evaluate every aspect and change in our lives.
Mindful Christianity applies the work of mindfulness and its universal and practical benefit for meditating upon Christ and His word. Meditation is merely stopping and being present on whatever we focus our minds on at the moment. The question for the Christian is not whether is Buddhism a religion, but as a Christian, can you pause long enough for one moment to genuinely reflect upon Christ and the kingdom of God’s impact upon your moment-by-moment existence? (Mindfulness as a Christ-Centered Practice)
Are you able to stop in your life even for a moment to meditate upon Christ, and what would happen in your spiritual life if you did? Can you stop being a human “doing” things to a human “being” merely being who God created you to be?
Please put your ceaseless activity in perspective; one day, all your busyness and doing stuff will stop. Mindful Christianity is learning how to make solitude away from all the commotion and things you need to get done. Our minds will tell us there’s always another thing to finish before we stop and learn how to live in the present moment. Sometimes we have to mentally die on purpose to the activities of the world to free ourselves to be aware of the resurrected Christ.
When we stop and let go of everything around us and meditate upon Christ and his kingdom, fully awake in the present moment, we discover true freedom and eternal hope. I am thankful mindfulness meditation helps me learn how to be a Mindful Christian and live in the presence of God, united in spirit with the Eternal Now of the universe.
Image via Pixabay
