On Saturday, at the Men’s Conference here at church, Jack Crans said something to this effect:
“If I say the word ‘muse’ people look at me like I’m crazy. If I say ‘amuse,’ they know what I’m talking about.”
He was trying to make a point about our need to muse on the word of God. He used the word, then stopped, and said the quote above. His point was that, in our culture, we use the word “amuse” a lot. And we almost never use the word “muse.”
And I forget if he went on to make this point or not (because my mind went off on this at that moment) but what a profound insight this is–because of course, the meaning of the prefix “a” before a word is to say “not” something. So, if “muse” means “to think over slowly and deeply,” then “amuse” means “to not think deeply or slowly at all.” And if we live in a culture where everyone knows and loves the word “amuse” but no one knows the word “muse”… do you see what’s going on? We’ve built entire industries for amusement, and most people around us spend most of their time and money, and invest most of their emotional energy, in these industries–the industries of amusement. Which means…we have an entire society built on keeping people from thinking slowly and deeply about things that matter.
Many people don’t even consider that they might spend their life doing that. They want to be amused. And if “musing” is what is really necessary for a deep understanding of who God is and what he says to us, where does this put us?
I suggest doing a word search on the word “meditate“ in the Bible.
You might also want to listen to Jack’s whole message.