“Where does God live?” asked the Rabbi of his disciples as they sat around the table for dinner. The disciples were surprised at their master! Such an obvious question. Everyone knows that God is everywhere. So nobody answered. The Rabbi seemed to be talking to himself as he mumbled, “where does God live? God lives wherever we let Him enter.”
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We live in a crazy society. Always running around and around in circles. We do not seem to know how to stop this absurd race against time. Everyone is busy, everyone grumbles that he has no time to do anything… Work, school, jogging, workshops, housework, television, church, homework, laundry, cooking, kids, meetings… Burnt out! Tired! Jaded!
I was watching recently this group of scientists talking on television about their experience on an expedition in the forests of the Amazon. They took a group of natives with them to carry their luggage – clothes, food, water, scientific equipment. For the first week, all went well. They were moving quickly and were happy that their plans were running on schedule. Suddenly, however, the natives put down the loads they were carrying on their heads, sat down, and would not move.
The scientists could not understand this behavior. They natives refused to speak. They tried to reason things out, they offered them more money, they threatened them, they even tried to move them forcibly. All was in vain. The natives remained seated and silent. Two days later, however, without a cue, they got up, lifted their loads, and began the journey again as if nothing had happened!
When the expedition was over, these scientists asked the natives the reason for their strange behavior. Their answer was simple and forthright, “We were hurrying too much. So much …. that our spirits could not reach us! So we stopped so our spirits could catch up with us!”
How smart!
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“We were hurrying too much!” Perhaps the time has come for you to recuperate your mental energies. Otherwise you risk becoming more and more frantic with this constant work, work, work of yours.
The time has come for us to reclaim our inner silence.
Today as you are returning from work, stop by a quiet Church and spend ten minutes sitting in front of Jesus. No need to say much. Just look at Him. Or else go outside, find a park, a quiet place, and spend some minutes looking up at the heavens…. Just smile at Him.
Otherwise you may finish up praying like that man who was heard saying, “O God, if there is a God, save my soul, if I have a soul!”