I’m not sure this is the direction we’ll go on Sunday but reading through the beginning of Proverbs this week got me thinking about how we have grown so used to immediacy. If we want to know something we pull out our phone and ‘google’ it. If we want to talk to someone we text them and they text right back. If we want to buy something we go online and click ‘check out.’ If we want to eat something we place the order and someone delivers it faster than it seems possible to prepare it. Life is immediate.
Lady Wisdom in the beginning of the Book of Proverbs is shouting from the city square “come back to me,” and when no one shows up she eventually says (I’m paraphrasing) ‘fine you didn’t listen, I’m not going to stick around, you’re on your own.”
For me she’s talking about the art of attention. When life is good, when we’ve got what we want and need we tend to forget all about God. Then when we are vulnerable we want to ‘place our order’ or ‘google God’s answer’ or have God ‘text’ us right away to make us feel better, bring us out of our situation, make things right again.
Wisdom wants us to pay attention. Wants us to listen to, and learn from, God all the time.
Perhaps it’s when we think we’ve done it all that we need to pay attention the most.
See you Sunday.