Pray Focused

Romans 8:31ff.

Thich Nhat Hanh shared a wonderful story about meditation practice. A monk chose to meditate daily in bus stations and train stations, sitting in the middle of the main concourse where the traffic of passengers, those picking them up, and those dropping them off was heaviest. He did so because he could think of no place more inappropriate to sit in meditation. He sought two things—first, if he could sit in meditation there, he could sit anywhere; he was truly a master of his practice; and, second, it forced him to confront the truth that he practiced not for himself, but to be better able to connect to the world around him.

What I find so powerful about this story is the wisdom it imparts for anyone who seeks to follow God in a world such as ours. We live in a completely distracted age. We pump music into every store, restaurant, mall, carwash—anywhere the public gathers. Sitting down to dinner out means battling for conversation over the blare of TVs on every wall and our own inclination to fix our gaze on the screen of our phones rather than the person in front of us. Cars comes with televisions cemented into the headrests as well as ports for any and all of our electronic devices. Roads are lined with animated billboards. Everywhere we turn, there is not one thing, but a veritable chaos of things demanding our attention, drawing us away from whatever it is we are actually doing. That includes church as we know it and create it. Worship can become a chaos of images, sounds, noise, and all else with huge screens, amped music, and little silence. There is no room for God or anyone else, yet we know we have been somewhere and done something, struggling to figure out just what that was. 

I realize and recognize immediately that I sound a curmudgeon. Maybe I am (…if the shoe fits, walk in it, so they say). 

So, the issue becomes how we find God in the middle of a noisy, distracted context.

Take a lesson from the monk sitting in the train station—don’t be afraid of being in the world, rather use being in the world to focus faith. 

Begin by changing how you are in the world on a daily basis. Don’t give in to its many distractions, take them in. What is vying to be the MOST IMPORTANT THING EVER? Where are most people being pulled? What is pulling them apart? What is keeping them from being who they are?

Then, move away from being a curmudgeon. As the monk sat in the train station, he also saw what connected the people there. He saw the things that mattered. What do we see? What do we hear? What do we take in as the real connections in our world? Maybe that kid glued to her IPad really is connected to the person Instagramming. Maybe she is trying to find her place, her meaning, and her purpose. Pay attention.

Then, find the holy where you are. 

My daughter has discovered a deep spirituality among her friends and acquaintances at college (Young Harris College in the north Georgia mountains). Young Harris, being where it is, attracts some interesting students who chose the school because of its access to the great outdoors. There is a National Forest Service hiking trail to the highest peak in Georgia that begins right behind one of the dorms. It is one of the few schools I know of that has an NCAA bass fishing team. They also offer a major in “Outdoor Leadership,” training future employees of those national and state parks that can be found in the nooks and crannies of the mountains. A good many of these kids practice a unique form of spirituality they call “doing some Word.” They will toss their Bibles in with all their gear as they head out to camp, hike, go bouldering, kayak, or whatever. They will intentionally take time to meditate and pray on the Word written wherever they are, finding sanctuaries out there in the world. They discover that anywhere can be holy. 

What I love about those kids “doing some Word” is that they assume they will find God wherever they happen to be, doing whatever they happen to be doing. They are predisposed to meet God, ready to awaken to God’s presence. Are we? Do we realize that any place can be holy? Do we recognize that God truly is everywhere? The monk found the holy in busy travel hubs. The students find God floating along the Chattahoochee River. Are we ready to be surprised by God’s infusion of the holy everywhere and anywhere?

Finally, don’t be afraid to let others know what you find and feel. The kids on the trail come back without being obnoxious, intrusive, or demanding that we agree with everything they think—quite the opposite, really. Dogmatism died about fifty years ago. Instead, as they tap into something meaningful, powerful, and, yes, joyful, they share it—perhaps instantly with a Facebook post or picture (or whatever social media is in vogue at the moment). They do so because they want to share something really good. Follow them. My assumption is, right or wrong, that none of us would be gathered together in this worship space if we did not think it meaningful to do so. My prayer is—and it is certainly nothing I take for granted—that you feel this is a really good place to be, so why not let someone else know about it? The monk does so in silent witness simply sitting near the flow of traffic. Anything is possible. 

Try it.

Engage. 

Pray focused.