We walk the spiritual journey in a world where there is ever present evil, far more than just three temptations, and enough stress to sink a ship. Faithful living cannot be done in a spiritual cocoon. Neither can we pull up our robes of righteousness and bury our head in the sand. When we read the accounts of the Desert Fathers, we see that not even a life of solitude and silence kept the world away. The truth is that as long as we carry our own heart within us, we will face those things which can turn our eyes from the direction we want to go.
This morning provided a comfortable chair on a porch overlooking a river. Birds were flying overhead. Ducks were meandering around the water's edge. The sun was working magic as it brought shadows and light on the landscape. In this midst of all these things which invited spiritual reflection there was the sound of hurrying automobiles on the nearby bridge. Before that noise was tuned out, someone turned on a leaf blower. Finally, a young woman sat down not far from my place of reflection and shared a cell phone conversation via speaker phone.
Life is always full of distractions. The quiet moments we anticipate with God are often hijacked by some unexpected intrusion. The intrusion or distraction may be some unnaturally generated noise, or it may be our mind wondering off to worry about a problem. It does not take a loud noisemaker beside us to take us away from where we intended to be to where we are. This morning's message from God through His Creation reminded me that we live as His disciples not outside the world, but in it.
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