Thursday, 5 December, 2002

This is a part of a series of devotions based on: God Was In This Place & I , i Did Not Know - by Lawrence Kushner



Universal consciousness is too much to handle and would burn out the circuitry (of our being - I suppose). In Thoreau's words, "I have never met a (person) who was quite awake. How could I have looked (that person) in the face? We must therefore create an elaborate system of filters, lenses, and blinders to screen out the extraneous images, leaving us with a very small field of vision. What we call consciousness is all that remains visible in this tiny patch of the light of our attention. We can aim it at anything we like, but only a very few things at a time. How we will focus and direct the bean is up to us.



We each miss so much of what is going on around us. The words, the images, the smells, the feel, and then...the various combinations of all these as they play off one another. One way to be aware of the world around us is to come into our world with a story that helps guide us...a lens that gives us the ability to see in a specific way. No matter what we do, we enter into this day with some sort of filter or lens that attempts to provide us with a way of dealing with all that is going on around us. Fill a room with people and ask them to make some comments about an object in the room or an activity that they have just experienced, and watch how the filters work to interpret and to screen. What if our default filter...our lens, was the grace of God. How would the world look to us and what would our vision do to how we then lived our lives? One thing to remember. No matter what our lens may be and no matter how we then live our lives, others may have a lens that does not let them see us as we would like to be seen.



Connection: With the lens of our lives being the grace of God, we cannot be in control of everything. Our God will inspire our living and we may then live by grace alone, but that may not be greeted well by others. By grace, we then continue.



Lord of Love, in all times keep us firm on the foundation of your graceful reign so that whatever this day may bring we will persistently put on the gracious lens of your reign and be steadfast in our love of others. Amen.