|
Today's
Meditation:
Our world has somehow become one in which information
is our new God, and the gathering of information is our
new form of worship. At least, it seems that way for
many people. Nobody wants to say "I don't
know" any more, and we all have incredible sources of
information at our fingertips that we just have to
use--after all, we're paying for it--to find out
information from somewhere else rather than learning
something ourselves.
We see many people missing out on those sacred moments
because of their fixation with information. The
parent who's at a school play can't focus on his or her
daughter's performance because he or she is texting with a
colleague about something going on at work. The
lover who doesn't hear the pain in the partner's voice
because he or she is focused on the Internet. The
long walk in the woods that never happens because the time
is spent on Facebook or on a video game.
We are spirits before we are people. At our depth,
at our most authentic level, we are not limited to this
body we have. The unity that we feel inside is not
just a unity with people, but with the deeper parts of
those people who are with us on this planet. Our
lives could be filled with truly amazing and truly
inspiring spiritual moments--but only if we take the time
and make the effort to stop focusing on information and
start recognizing those sacred moments as they make their
ways into our lives. If we were to do this, life
could become one sacred moment after another.
Our challenge, then, seems to be to recognize when we might
be going overboard on the information so that we can shift
our focus to those things going on in our lives that are
sacred. We can shift from reading news stories that
are irrelevant to us, to asking a young person how his or
her day has been. We can turn off the computer and
watch the tree in our yard sway in the breeze, and think
of just how beautiful and amazing trees are. Or we
can just enjoy the silence and have a little talk with
God, and actually listen for God's replies.
Sacred moments are everywhere, and they happen all the
time. In our quest to gather and maintain
information, though, we make ourselves too focused on one
thing to be able to see the others.
|
