Pondering….what a pondersome thing to ponder upon.
Pondering is powerful stuff. When i was a kid i was told to let my mind wander to imagine life from a different angle, then, by another adult, i was told to stop daydreaming because i wasn’t present in the room at school. It was very conflicting. Yet, to this day, pondering the Lord is my great addiction. There are not many things in this life i can do all i want till i’m satisfied, and pondering and chasing after Jesus is number one…and two, and three on the list of priorities. Interestingly, pondering on the Lord always leaves me satisfied, and always inspires my need to know Him more, all at the same time.
Luke2:19, “But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.” The Greek word, “sumballo” (soom-bal-o) is translated “pondered” here, and it means “to combine together for comparison.” For us, the word represents our method, which the Lord has given us, that we would learn to come to conclusions, whether for good or not it speaks of a process. To “ponder” the days events is to remember the words and events of the day, do a comparative analysis searching for God’s direction, in hopes that it all might yield more light to the astonishing unfolding days of our lives. As we ponder, we keep adding to our valuable treasure pile, holding it all as possibly important. We put some things on the back burner and some things to the front as we unpack our ponderings, spreading them out on the table of our heart to make “circumspect decisions”. We take it all out, roll it around, consider it this way and that … each time rearranging the pieces a little differently. As i ponder the events of the day in the evening, i might put the morning phone call from a friend in front, behind the scripture i read. Then upon remembering a dream from the other day which seems relative to things in the moment, i might file it visibly behind the first two. A few days from now, i might rearrange it all until the word of the Lord begins to come clear, with every rearrangement held up to the Lord and compared to the other valuables in my bag.
That is pondering from God’s perspective. It’s not just dreaming of whatever and letting anything float through our minds, it is more specific and is a tool God invented to help us “work out our salvation with fear and trembling”. Note the words in Philippians 2:12, “work out”, which means to lay your hand to, think, consider and take action in order to accomplish it. In addition i’ll add that it also implies to not ignore the things which hinder you, in the sense that we’ll have to “live with it, until we deal with it.” What are you willing to live with which is not good, in order to avoid being uncomfortable and inconvenienced?
In 2 Kings 19:14, Hezekiah has received a letter from the armies of Syria which had surrounded the city to destroy it and take captives. Scripture says, “Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the LORD and spread it before the LORD.”
You see there where he “spread it before the Lord”? That is a Hebrew idiom meaning he split the letter up in parts and pages to get a better circumspect view, then made an invitation for the Lord to join him in pondering the events of the day. In the following verses, he goes on to ask God for His wisdom and help. Not only did he spread it out to ponder, but in vs16 he talks to the Lord about it all just like he’s making conversation. He’s basically saying, “Look at this ridiculous letter. Check it out Lord, this is just crazy, and what’s worse, this arrogant king-person is calling you names, and that’s just wrong, wrong, wrong. What do you wanna do here, ‘cause i’ve looked at this from all different angles and the path on what to do is just not clear.” He had pondered to a conclusion that only God knew what to do, and he believed the answer would come.
Sometimes, we need to, “mature an idea, uninterrupted, brooding on the matter”, letting our thought patterns become more like a staircase than simply filling out a block diagram. Many things the Lord extends need to be treated like wine. Don’t get in a hurry, let it mature, trust that the Lord will make it come clear in due season. You’ll see.
In Acts 4:15 it says they “conferred with each other”. The word “conferred” is the same word translated as “pondered” like the example of Mary. They combined ideas, good and bad, made good points and argued over counterpoints to decide an issue. A similar scene can be observed in Luke 24, where two men were walking to Emmaus, and scripture says they “talked, and discussed” as they walked, in other words, it wasn’t idle chatter, they were deep in a serious conversation, pondering the recent things which had happened. They discussed, and reasoned together with the intent of understanding the heart of the Lord. Then Jesus appeared and began to explain it to them, though in the moment they didn’t recognize Him. At the proper time, the eyes of their understanding were opened. It was a huge AH-HA moment.
In Acts 17, when Paul was in Athens, vs 18 says he “conversed” with the philosophers who gathered to exchange ideas. The word “conversed” is the same word previously translated “ponder”, meaning that Paul listened, laid out ideas, points and counterpoints, they spread out their ideas so they could see them and held each one up, comparatively, to see if it, “held water”, so to speak. They pondered together.
Proverbs 4:26, “Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure.” That is a slightly different word, which means to “roll flat, fold back together, revolve, and weigh,” like someone kneading dough. That is God’s idea of pondering. It is a tool which the Lord gave us to help make good choices in life, yet there are many who simply take the words of a respected person for granted without “working out” what the Lord is saying to them, specifically. No one but you are responsible for the people you prefer to defer to, concerning what you believe, how you came to that conclusion, and why you think it’s a good idea, which is called “epistemology”.
If we don’t hold each piece of our ideas, thinking, and insight up to the Lord, rolling it flat, weighing the information, then folding it all back together again, what are we actually doing except blindly following along. The Lord never, ever, asked for blind followers.
What do you think?