Elijah Touched By An Angel -- Marc Chagall
Even though I've preached on giving our attention to God through the years I may have been too distracted to notice the way different cultures describe attentiveness. Recently a linguistics wonk named Javier Santana tweeted these observations on the subject:
In Spanish, attention is something you "lend", because you kind of want it back. In French you "make" it, because it's not there if you don't. In English you "pay" it, because it's valuable. And in German you "gift" it, because it's really a present. I wish I knew all languages!
This intrigued me and served as a reminder that attention is active rather than passive, something we engage in for any number of reasons, including strengthening relationships. Thanks Javier, wherever you are.
This also led my fevered brain to consider what I've been reading recently in the second volume of Maggie Ross's Silence: A User's Guide. She points out that the word "behold" is used many times in the Older and New Testaments. When we enter the portals into silence we open the mind, the eye of the heart. She regards this profound attention, often born in silence, as central to the biblical message. This is an antidote (my term) for the constant distraction of our age.
Attention and the divinely deepened ability to behold are costly, and perhaps only possible by God's gift of grace. I find that I am able to lend my attention most deeply when I'm in the natural world, in a canoe or kayak,
Hmm...see what a random tweet gets started!
Fess up, is your ability to pay attention diminishing in this day of social media distraction?
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