It is good to remember that spirituality is a series of practices that allow us to pay attention to God. God’s always there, but we get easily distracted. And the more we get distracted, the easier it is to get distracted. Distraction itself has become our practice.
The answer, of course, is the opposite practice of attentiveness. Pray the Examen every day. Practice lectio divina. Practice meditation on icons. Practice anything that allows you to sustain a meditative, contemplative attention—what Walter Burghardt, SJ, called “a long, loving look at the real.”
God is in the loving look at the real. Paradoxically, God is also in the things that distract us; it’s we ourselves who get lost in distraction.
Photo by Katie Lyke on Unsplash.
Thanks Tim. In Exodus 34:14, 20:5, God describes Himself as a “jealous God”. When God distracts us, some even go to the point of naming such distractions, ‘holy distractions’.
An interesting twist that never occurred that the author points out. God is in the distractions – it’s we who are not!