Little vision, tiny hearts

In our zeal to become the landlords of our own being, we cling to each achievement as a kind of verification of our self-proclaimed reality. We become the center and God somehow recedes to an invisible fringe. Others become real to the extent they become significant others to the designs of our own ego. And in this process the ALL of God dies in us and the sterile nothingness of our desires becomes our God. . . .

          James Finley

_____________________________

 

if I can’t see past my own nose

if everything begins and ends with me

my world is very small

 

and I become very small

with little vision

a tiny heart

and a soul thirsting for living water

 

no matter how big I am

how important

no matter what I accomplish

no matter how much power I can wield

 

if someone looks into my eyes

they will know

that something is missing

 

we see it in the eyes of Putin

sitting in splendid isolation at the end of his

VERY BIG TABLE

master of his universe

able to send a caravan of mass destruction against

a vulnerable nation

 

we see it in the eyes of Boebert and Greene

as they attempt to demean and dehumanize

but end up only demeaning and dehumanizing themselves

 

I too am tempted

to make myself everything

to get caught up in the trappings of ego

my body image,

job,

education,

clothes,

money,

house, car,

on and on it goes

 

and soon I am blind to others

to the world

and soon I have pushed not only others

but God

to the fringe

almost out of my life altogether

 

and my ego and its desire

become my center

I become addicted to self

 

but my body ages

retirement comes

there is always more to learn

and this self-focus

this individualism becomes toxic

 

to those around me

and to myself

 

it is contagious, and illness

that permeates

and destroys

 

but there is a true self

a self that is connected to and centered on

Sacred

a self that is fed by bread and wine

a self whose thirst is quenched

by springs of living waters

 

a self that can see

as if from the top of a mountain

forever

 

can see the Sacred

see others

and see where it is to go

and who it is called to be