MEDITATION & MORALITY
Praying for a Better Way
by Art Toalston
Meditation & Morality: Praying for a Better Way
Copyright 2013 by Art Toalston
Published in eBook format by eBookIt.com
ISBN-13: 978-1-4566-1440-9
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.
Scripture references in Meditation & Morality, unless otherwise noted, are from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Cover design by Katherine Motta
Cover drawing by Joe McKeever
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NOTE: The numbering used in the following Table of Contents reflects the thought-by-thought unfolding of Meditation & Morality. The chapters and their brief subsections can facilitate stop-and-go reading. The chapters also provide a handy way of returning to any of the subsections for further moments of meditation on a morality that is wholesome, winsome, and celebratory.
1. A ray of light
If your inner sense of morality has been tarnished or shattered by immorality, and you wish things were different, ponder this Bible passage: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”
Begin memorizing these words, which were spoken by Jesus.
In doing so, you will be engaging in a form of meditation.
Even if it’s just for a few moments, or several times during the day, this simple form of meditation on the words of Jesus will begin to nurture a winsome, intriguing morality in your soul. These words will have an effect, perhaps dramatically, perhaps subtly, perhaps both, even as your struggle or your affliction with immorality may continue to fester or rage.
These eleven words can become a small ray of light at the beginning of your journey out of immorality, yet there is nothing “magical” about them. For now, let’s just say there’s a unique dynamic to them because they were spoken by Jesus.
1.1
Almost any passage from the Bible can be a resource for meditation.
These words, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God,” are among an array of passages from Scripture that could be suggested as a beginning point for meditation.
These words of Jesus are from what is called the Sermon on the Mount in the Bible’s New Testament book of Matthew, chapters 5-7.
If you’ve had a chance to repeat this sentence a few times, you have seen the phrase “pure in heart” and noticed that those who possess this heart “will see God.”
Yes, it’s early in your exit from immorality, but isn’t it wondrous to breathe fresh air for a few seconds when, otherwise, you are living in polluted air? Aren’t a few moments of godliness an appealing alternative to the grip of anything that is destructive and habitual? Even if you may be burdened by something that is “no big deal” to everyone else, you may sense a stirring in your soul over a flicker of hope for relief from moral uncertainty.
1.2
If you are afflicted by immorality, you need help and grace. The sooner you begin treatment and begin to see “a light at the end of the tunnel,” the better.
If you sustained a broken arm or other injury, or if you had severe chest pains, you likely would go to an emergency room as soon as possible.
If you started to display cancer-like symptoms and a doctor ordered some laboratory work that led to a diagnosis of the disease, you would be advised to begin treatment.
Otherwise, your health suffers and worsens.
In the same way, immorality typically worsens. It leads to more suffering and to hopelessness and inner loneliness.
Meditation, though, can be an antidote, a beginning point for healing.
1.3
Deep in your heart, I believe, is a yearning to live honorably.
This yearning may be in competition with other yearnings – for riches, pleasure, popularity, or another manifestation of self-absorption.
You may think it is too difficult to live honorably. You may think it is normal to live in whatever form of immorality occupies your life. You may think you don’t have a choice.
But you indeed can choose. For now, you may not feel any ability to make an overarching choice between morality and immorality.
But you can choose to let a tiny measure of godliness into your life.
What harm will it do?
2. Pondering the difference
So, you ask, what is morality and what is immorality?
Let’s start with the latter, the affliction, and consider these descriptions:
Immorality is any attitude or action that de-optimizes one’s own life and/or the life of another person or multiple individuals.
Immorality is any self-concocted rationalization for living dishonorably and disrespecting other people.
Immorality is anything that lessens your hope “to see God,” as Jesus put it in the Sermon on the Mount.
Immorality flows from “sinful desires that war against your soul,” as one of Jesus’ disciples, Peter, described it in the New Testament’s book of Peter, chapter 2, verse 11.
Immorality is any disdain toward ancient or contemporary writings that set forth guidance for honorable, wholesome living.
2.1
