One of the gifts of being a new person in a new place is that you have a unique opportunity to experience that situation for the first time. As you do, you pay attention to details that you would overlook when you are having the same experience for the hundredth or thousandth time. You look more closely, you listen more carefully, you engage with curiosity, you seek out help as you ask questions about where things are and how they work.
Later, as things become more familiar, we settle into a place of comfortable acceptance. We develop a routine and find ourselves being the ones who answer the questions. This is a gift as well. It doesn’t take as much energy or time to navigate daily life and so we can use those resources to continue to learn, grow, and experience other people and contexts.
But then sometimes we get too comfortable, we begin to make more assumptions, we begin to pay less attention to those same experiences and people, and we begin to expect that things should fit with the way we know them to be. We begin to follow the same patterns each day or week and we miss what is happening on the next block, in the next room, or right in front of us, or even within us.
Change and growth are often gradual. The way we share ourselves with one another is often time. It’s not until we look at a photo or see someone we haven’t seen for a while that we realize how much a child has grown, just how many years have passed, that we have changed, and how the things we still think of as new are now dated.
How do we pay attention so that we don’t miss the gifts and the daily subtle changes of life? How do we continue to grow in our knowing of those we love so dearly? How can we experience life each day with the same attention we give as we experience things for the first time?
These are faith questions as well. Developing a strong assurance and daily practice of faith is a wonderful gift. But then sometimes we get too comfortable with our routine. We make assumptions about God and God’s work in the world. How do we give our full attention to experiencing the wonder, beauty and awe of God that is new every morning and that drew us to faith and the church in the first place?
Prayer is one of the spiritual disciplines that can help us continue to grow in our ability to pay attention—to God, to ourselves, and to the world around us. After we have used all of our words, we settle into a quiet space and begin to pay attention to what is going on in us, around us, and with those we love. As we do so the Holy Spirit opens us to see with new eyes, to hear with new ears, and guides us to a place of wonder and grace.
This weekend in worship we will be guided by a very familiar passage in Luke 10:25-37—the story of The Good Samaritan. As we read and reflect on it, it is my prayer that we will be both comforted by its familiarity and challenged to experience it and respond to it as if we are hearing it for the first time.
I look forward to worshiping with you in person or online!
Blessings,
Pastor Suzanne