“Then going out he went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him.”
Luke 22:39 (NAB)
Jesus could be found in the temple every day, teaching and preaching. We learn from scripture that He loved the temple ever since He was a child. People naturally hung on His every word, as He ministered to the crowds, pouring Himself out, by healing, teaching and preaching. It sounds like He spent every day, all day long with people, but this scripture tells us that when night came, Jesus departed as was His “customary habit”, to a special place. He had one preferred place to go in order to spiritually refresh Himself and talk to His Father, which was the Mount of Olives.
We all have a preferred place, that has the elements we need to help us reconnect with God. For some, a particular atmosphere and scenery helps us to focus and spiritually reconnect. Some people are inspired by seeing a body of water, being on a boat or relaxing near a shore. Some prefer the scene from a high mountain top, and others need to be surrounded by the sights and scents of a garden or a rich forest.
I am inspired by artwork and certain portraits of Jesus, as well as scenes that illustrate scriptural truths in some spectacular way. It’s probably the reason I started adding illustrations to every meditation after the first year of writing them. I love the visual arts, but I also have other customs of finding inspiration.
While silence and quiet meditation is important for every believer, there are many sights, sounds or scents that help us focus and reconnect with the Lord. It is unique to each individual. Certain contemporary Christian music lyrics inspire me to open up more with God.
I worked in a major hospital for over two decades, and in my early career years, I did EEG brain wave tests on many unresponsive or comatose patients. I have watched many family members talking to their unconscious or comatose loved ones, while at their bedside, hoping their loved one could hear and understand them.
People who have woken up from a coma, claim to remember hearing their loved ones talking to them. In the past few years, scientific research has finally proven that the sense of hearing outlasts all other senses, and remains to the end of human life. It’s good to know that those we love can or have heard us, despite being unconscious.
Since the sense of hearing is the last sense to go, I intend to use mine fully, so I composed a special playlist of inspiring songs and named it my “Coma” playlist, which I want to have played if I’m ever in a coma. People always laugh when I tell them about my Coma playlist, but I’m dead serious. (no pun intended.)
God gave us five senses to use, a sense of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. So whether we are inspired by looking at great artwork, sitting on a mountain top, listening to the ocean, smelling a forest, or hearing certain music, our senses will always have the potential to deepen our connection with God.
Whatever we are going through in our life, we all need a customary place of inspiration to retreat to, something that stimulates some or all of our senses and enriches our private time with God.
It’s a place where we not only speak to Him, but where we can tune in to hear His still, small voice, which is regularly speaking to us. Whatever customary practice helps us to reconnect with the Lord, I pray God blesses it in each of our lives.
What is your daily custom for inspiration ?
Lord, thank you for helping us find our best way to reconnect with you. Bless each reader today and draw us all closer to you. Amen