1. Headspace: a digital service that provides guided meditation sessions and mindfulness
training. Its content can be accessed online, or via their mobile apps. In April 2016, Headspace claimed to have over 6 million people using the app.
2. Headspace: the amount of room in the chamber for the cartridge to rest before it is
discharged.
3. Headspace: the volume above a liquid or solid in a closed container
4. Headspace: your general mental and emotional condition. That which fills your mind.
I was on my computer looking up a sermon by one of my favorite preachers. I clicked on the
YouTube picture and waited for the sermon to load but soon realized it was a sermon about
this preacher. It was another preacher railing on him and misrepresenting in so many ways.
I listened for a few seconds and was disputing these farfetched allegations when I scrolled
down to read some of the comments below. Before I knew it, I was caught up in an internal
dialogue and argument with imaginary people that I would never meet. My heart was racing,
blood pressure rising and a general anger was under the surface. Thankfully, I caught myself
closed my computer and took a deep breath.
I realized in that moment that so much of my “headspace” is taken up by the controversies of
this life. My mind is filled with the disagreements and divisions of our day:
Racism, politics, gender issues. LGBTQ. #MeToo. The Churches stand on homosexuality.
Injustice. “contradictions” in the Bible. The trustworthiness of the Bible. Sin. Sickness. Disease. Aging (I’m reminded of this on a daily basis) friends and family getting cancer. Unfair treatment in this world. Suffering. Pain. Prodigal children, church family members straying from the truth. Broken relationships. Mosquitos (ugh, I’m outside right now) Nutrition, eating the right foods. Maintaining the right diet…who’s right? Essential oils…real or fake? Personal temptations. Budgets, murders, lost people! On and on and on it goes!!!
Ever been there? Are you there? Your mind is FILLED with all these things, issues and problems. My mind has been FILLED with all these things and more. As I process this on my computer, I realize that I cannot be filled with these things and GOD at the same time. They cannot occupy the same space in the same way, in the same degree. One must take precedence over the other.
When I get like this, the Psalms remind me that the person who is truly blessed, is not the one who is filled with the advice, behavior and mindset of the ungodly but the one who delights in the law of the LORD and meditates (is filled) on it day and night. Psalm 1
The Psalms also remind me that real satisfaction comes from God! This is not a cliché or a
memorized Sunday School answer; this is reality:
1 O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
2 So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,
beholding your power and glory.
3 Because your steadfast love is better than life,
my lips will praise you.
4 So I will bless you as long as I live;
in your name I will lift up my hands.
5 My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food,
and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips,
6 when I remember you upon my bed,
and meditate on you in the watches of the night;
7 for you have been my help,
and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.
8 My soul clings to you;
your right hand upholds me.
My mind “headspace” must be filled with the truths and reality of God. Yes, things here on this earth are broken and in some sense cannot be fixed. But our minds must not dwell on and embrace these temporary, broken realities as final. We must meditate on the beauty of the Lord. Listen to Psalm 27:4
One thing have I asked of the LORD,
that will I seek after:
that I may dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD
and to inquire in his temple.
May we all GAZE, stare at, look on with intensity, perceive, purposefully contemplate, the
Beauty of the Lord. May your headspace be FILLED with the loveliness of GOD!