Paying Attention
This post is third in a sporadic series on a book I’m reading that is changing my life: “God in the Yard“, by LL Barkat. This is not a book review, per se, but perhaps a book invitation…The author writes early on ‘smallness permits attention,’ and I am starting small, stitching together my Sabbath times, sitting with God in my yard for 15-30 minutes 2-3 times a week.
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I am amazed at what I see and hear as I pay attention.
And I’ve discovered, through the author’s suggestion of using ‘transformational math’ and playing towards God, as she puts it, a new formula for my quiet times.
There IS a cost for just showing up and paying attention–my precious time, but it is a price worth paying.
Because God drops in thoughts like this:
The view from my deck often contains a sky full of gray. The colors are muted, indistinct in this low light time.
when it’s gray around the edges?”
As I look off into the distance, model-like cars travel the highway.
There are so many layers between my head and my eyes and the objects on which they land.
Shapes aren’t as clear–clouded, undefined, fuzzy around the edges. I know what’s out there is real–I’ve seen these far off buildings up close. But now all I view are the floodlights illuminating amorphous contours.
How do I know what’s really out there?
Every object I see is just as real as the chair I’m sitting in,
- When life is murky and gray around the edges you have to look harder to see it and ignore all that’s between your eyes and the far away horizon.
- When you practice paying attention you get better at knowing what to look for, you use your other senses to discern what’s actually going on.
- You go by faith.
“God what are you doing here, even when I can’t see?”
