Vancouver
Oblivious?
Most comedians come up with their material simply by keeping their eyes open and watching the world around them. That this is often achieved using that blessed and still-accepted pharmaceutical hidden deep within the coffee bean might also account for the way in which we see the world. Thanks be to God that Christians are still ok with gluttony and caffeine. It won’t last long. As soon as Focus on The Pharmacy releases their study proving lattes are a gateway beverage that lead to cappuccinos, americanos and ultimately to a life of illicit double espressos in trendy european bistro cups, we’ll be cut off forever. Except the Episcopaleans, and to a lesser degree, the Presbyterians – they seem to get away with alot more than Baptists and Pentecostals.
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This morning while plugging in the daily IV with a double-tall-half-fat-triple-sweet Caramel Mocha Latte, I noticed two things which I will now spin into a funny, yet poignant cautionary tale, simply by having kept my eyes open and my caffeine levels at the red line.
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The first was a motorcyclist with no helmet. And while I have strong views on how stupid you have to be to ride a motorcycle in a tank top with no helmet, I also believe that some people have prescious-little to risk in the event of a head injury. No, it wasn’t the lack of helmet that amazed me. It was that this man was smoking, while riding his motorcycle down the road with no helmet. How badly does this man want to end his life that he would knowingly light a cigarette and let it dangle from his face while speeding down the road with 10 gallons of gasoline between his legs? No helmet in the world can help this man. Perhaps if he’d been wearing it earlier in life when he was repeatedly dropped on his head.
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The second thing I saw was a scaled-down version of the first. Heading towards the University of British Columbia was a young co-ed riding a bike. With no helmet. And headphones. And talking on a cell phone, leaving one hand with which she swerved through traffic. Other than wearing a blindfold or having a disco ball swinging wildly in front of her face I am not sure this young woman could have possibly been more oblivious and distracted.
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Oddly enough, while I shook my head at the biker and immediately made a mental note to exploit his moronic lack of caution to my benefit, the cyclist was like a little parable to me – about me.
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While being a Christian means my immediate reaction was to mock and judge, those noble thoughts were soon replaced by something more annoying. Something rather like the whisperings of God’s Spirit, though I knew from my theology training that God no longer speaks to us through any form but a conservative North American reading of the New International Version of the Bible, so I knew it couldn’t possibly be God’s voice. Nevertheless, this persistent voice has not gone away with the usually-mind-altering effects of too much caffeine, so I’ve been giving it some thought.
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I am so easily distracted. So quick to turn my head from side to side, looking for the next shiny thing, listening for the next voice to offer something new, deep, and most importantly, something that assures me I am ok, and right about everything. My journey with Jesus is fraught with distractions that I’d like to say were laid by Satan, but they aren’t. They’re mine. It seems in any given day there is so much to look at, chiefly among them is myself – Oh Lord how I love to think about myself. There is so much to listen to. So many things to eat, so very many things to drink. And at the end of the day I am very much like this young cyclist. Distracted and weaving on my way to heaven. I’m not listening to Jesus - my iPod and my mobile phone drowns Him out. I’m not hungry for the Bread of Life or the Living Water – I have my bagels and my coffee. And I have certainly not turned my eyes upon Jesus as much as I ought to; they’re too busy making sure I am not about to hit something or be hit by something else.
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I’m not saying all these things have no value, and it’s certainly not their fault I am so distracted. It’s mine. Life becomes so busy, the phone rings so much. I carry my laptop everywhere, scared I might miss that important email. My iPod carries some ten thousand songs on it. At any given moment I have a list of people I need to call, flights I need to book and errands I need to run. I have twenty things in my peripheral vision all vying for my attention and making me very distracted.
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On my better days my prayer, squeezed in between checking emails and forwarding my phone, is this:
“Father, let me catch such a glimpse of You today; that my heart and mind would not be distracted from You but distracted by You. Help me slow down.�
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None of this is about getting where we are going safely, it’s about missing the Best of the journey as we fly past Him. So intent to do something for Him that we’re drowning out His voice and missing Him entirely.
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Of course I am not the only one distracted and oblivious these days. Collectively we don’t always do so well. I wish that the ones Christ loves so much, those that live in the shadows and the brothels and the shelters and the gay communities across this continent, were no so quickly condemned by us in the church. I wish we would spend less time throwing stones, carrying placards, and shilling for political parties, and more time loving and lighting the ones in shadows. I wish we were not so caught up in our own holiness and self-protection that we would let the sinners (the other ones, the ones just like us, differentiated from us only in that they remain without while we remain within) through our doors by the boatload and let Jesus clean them up on His time schedule. The distractions are everywhere and they seem so worthwhile. Meanwhile there are millions left for dead on the road to Jericho, and I as I have said before – not a Samaritan in sight. But Lord, we were on our way to church! Exactly.
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O Lord, distract us from our distractions. Right our course. Blow us closer to the heart of this journey’s purpose – to love the Lord, our God, Creator, Abba! with our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. We are so good at loving ourselves, so distracted otherwise.
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He has shown thee, O man, what is good and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
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O Lord, distract me.
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 Original found here: http://www.fearfullyhuman.com/fearfully_human/2006/09/divine_comedy_m_2.html
