The problem with the world is that we've lost our sense of reverence -- for life, for love, for the earth, for each other, for our families, for God's universe. We've lost a sense of responsibility to anything other than to ourselves, acting too often as though there's no higher good to strive for than the satisfaction of our own desires. A consumer-driven culture exalts the idea that we can have whatever it is we want, yet that very idea seems to push farther and farther away those things that are what we really want. For what we really want, whether we know it or not, is to love and be loved. Not just to get, but to connect. Not just to participate in our own individual dramas, but to be part of a larger cause, a larger mission, a larger life than
just our own.
It's hard to push against the prevailing winds of self-centeredness today because they usually pose as something other than what they are. But somehow we've got to realign ourselves, and realign our culture, with the simple things that make life worth living. Too much speed, too much technology are robbing us of our life force. We have got to head back home, or we will be lost in the forrest of this suddenly all too complicated world. There is more wisdom in the silence than in the chatter, and more hope in the heart than in externalities. The mind wants this or that, but the heart just wants to go home...