November 26, 2006

• If you look around the world there are so many different things.  This statement is in regards to anything that can hold a person’s attention, or take up their time. 

  But think back.  Way back before all the masses of humans that are living were born and there were a lot less humans.  There wasn’t much to do.  All the things that occupy us today were once not even here.

  I’ll name some examples from my own life.  Last weekend I watched the much-hyped Buckeye game.  Right now I’m on the computer.  I’m eating chips and salsa.  I’m in a suburb.  I was recently reading a book.  Yesterday I watched a movie.  Tomorrow I will study calculus.   

  Imagine being in a town in the middle of Persia thousands of years ago.  There simply was not much to do besides marry and work.  There was not really things to learn, events to attend, or things to waste time doing. 

  This world around us was built by man, and is cluttered with his words, his inventions, his cities.  In history, as time progressed, mankind learned to creatively produce, and exponentially increased this creative production, until today when we can so clearly see mankind churning out these things in full gear.  I will bet 1,000 more songs were written today to take up my time.  Trying to keep up with the trends of the day is much like playing whack-a-mole.     

  My daily life as I now know it is like a puzzle that was put together one piece at a time throughout history, starting at the very beginning and gradually becoming bigger and more complicated, not even stopping expansion at my birth, or even now.  Every object around me and my presence in this room is a summation of mankind’s efforts.  Everything around me was crafted by someone, somewhere, at some point in time.  This carefully plotted and masterful construction of my life by humans in history has worked.  It seems to me the focus of my generation is externally, rather than internally.  Collectively, our focus is on all these things we have to do and have to see.  “Where’s my cellphone?!”  “I’m going to school!”  “Want to see Borat?”  ”Let’s go wait 14 hours to buy a PS3!”   

  But if you go back in time the world becomes smaller, with less things, and less preoccupations.  Take away everything and you are one soul, standing alone, unaffected by the extraneous additions of man to this world.  Now what are you? 

  Things, things, these meaningless things!  As I meander through the museum of man and my mind marvels and mangles at his magical makings, I must remember to imagine.  What am I?  Sweep away my surroundings and what then remains?  Things are like a perpetual dull hum in our lives that drown out His voice.  Actually, it was a dull hum many years ago, today it is more like a vivacious roar. 

  Especially for the soccer moms, our lives are like whirlwinds.  Psychologically, this trend of a multiplicity of options and opportunities in life has had a negative impact on teenagers, prolonging their decisions on what they want to do and who they want to become.  Our attention is being vied for, and no one is winning.  From one thing to the next we jump, in disordered, capricious actions. 

  A thousand bullhorns yell a thousand different commands while I stare at a thousand mirrors that each reflect a different image of who I am.  Turn them all off, smash them all I say!  and see what’s left.  

  We are so distracted.  Let my surroundings fade to know Your presence.  When everything in the world screams at me to listen, drown them all out, so that all that is left is the one voice that does not prevaricate, but speaks with love and truth.

  “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.”

  • 2:43 pm
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