The moment we live in
When our kids were growing up and we coached their first soccer teams, one of the big challenges as a coach was to get the kids on the team to focus on playing the game rather than to look at the butterfly they'd end up chasing or counting the petals on a flower or comparing who was taller.
They gotta learn sometime, I guess, but I felt like we were pushing kids a little early to do things they weren't ready for. Play? Yes. Competition and team play? I don't know. Maybe some were ready, but most would just kick each other in the shins trying to get the ball - even kicking their teammates!
We completely ignored the wonder some kids were still enjoying with just being outside and discovering nature and other people they'd just met and said, essentially, that it wasn't a good thing, and that they needed to focus on conformity and acquiring this abstract skill most hadn't any interest in.
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I think it's really important to live in a society where we know culture/a lot of the same things and that we have ways of interacting and working together. Things don't happen, stuff doesn't get produced, and things can get boring without all that. But maybe some of that boredom is good and needed.
We're such a busy people that many, at least in my experience, have lost the ability to be quiet, to be alone with their thoughts, to be alone with themselves, to enjoy stillness, to enjoy zero productivity without rushing to fill the void or end their "guilt" for not being productive, etc. And that's not a good thing.
It is the boredom, the quiet, the void...the places where nothing is happening...it's there that we can see what's inside, figure out what we believe, and who we are. The reason some don't like the quiet is because they need the outside stimulus to tell them what they believe, who they are, etc.
One of the surprising things about deconstruction and rebuilding has been that deep introspection time that necessitates quiet reflection.
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It was tempting a few years ago to gather different voices to help guide me through it all, but in the gathering, it was clear that each had their own agenda they needed to share.
It was important to learn/re-learn to listen to people and gather their opinions and wisdom, but to be careful about inviting them in to guide, mentor, or otherwise attempt to pre-shape how I thought things through and worked on potential outcomes and directions.
To some degree, it was deconstructing people and not just ideas: Why would they want to tell me that? What would be their motivation for saying it that way? What is "the win" for them or is there one? What are they assuming about me? What do their past and current actions show me?
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Because of all that noise, passive and intrusive, I've been relearning to be quiet - usually in doses. Initial quiet times, a few years back, echoed loud and long with all the stuff that I'd just pulled away from. Like yelling, "Hello!" into a canyon, a myriad of voices and ideas bounced around for the longest.
That brought up the need to reduce the noises and voices in general, not just in the quiet times. That, in turn, allowed "quiet times" to be places where you really could focus on what you believe, what you don't believe, what you've been acting like you believed, and vice versa. Time for originals, not just echos.
Just a quick note - when I say "quiet time", I don't mean "devotional/bible study", per se. Those are often just another noisy time usually, especially if you've been given a devotional guide by some group to complete on a schedule, etc. The Spirit usually doesn't follow someone's calendar, from my experience.
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In addition to the "this is what I believe after all" kinds of things that surface in the quiet, there is also room made for surprising appreciation for things you didn't realize you'd begun taking for granted: flowers, clouds, people, engineering, humor, food, nature, etc. Common things become amazing.
And out of that new amazement from old, common things comes new insight and appreciation for now and this moment. The momentum of culture around us can restrict our ability to see and experience the now. If I'm wondering about the next thing or someone's thoughts, I'm there, not here and now.
If I'm here and now, I can quietly observe the direction of the culture around me and see it's trajectory and know if the parts I am or have been part of are valuable or worthwhile enough to continue being part of, and then make decisions out of wisdom and calm, not out of the pressure to make anyone feel comfy.
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The past two weeks have been a field day in watching people rush around to follow what they're presented as facts and marching to the beat of their favorite drummers, often without the appearance of introspection - just reacting to the side they're told to react to and believing what's presented.
Some have asked me, "Well what else are we supposed to do?" My reaction is usually, "Maybe nothing. Maybe let it sit for a day or two. Maybe consider not giving your attention and loyalty away so quickly to the latest post, your favorite side, or things like that. Maybe look at a flower for an hour; really look at it."
I imagine in the days and weeks ahead, it's going to be a lot noisier and demanding of everyone's attention and loyalty. I'll be wary of quick responses. I know that you can't pick one end of a stick without moving the other end too. And a lot of people don't want you to know or remember that.
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Don't worry about your life, what you'll eat or drink; or about your body, what you'll wear. Isn't life more than food, and the body more than cloths? Look at the birds of the air; they don't plant seeds or harvest grain or store it away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren't you much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?" For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Grace and peace
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