attention

Last week, something struck me about the idea of attention. I just felt like I needed to consider it, learn from it, think about it. So I did.

Before I knew it, I was reading an essay by Christian philosopher Simone Weil, entitled Reflections on the Right Use of School Studies with a View to the Love of God. The first line reads: "The Key to a Christian conception of studies is the realization that prayer consists of attention. It is the orientation of all the attention of which the soul is capable towards God. The quality of attention counts for much in the quality of the prayer. Warmth of heart cannot make up for it." The rest of the essay follows the idea that attention is the lacking component of much modern Christianity, affecting our inability to prayer and thus our inability to truly know God. 

Weil points out that attention is becoming increasingly more difficult in a culture that is increasingly full of distractions - and she wrote that in the 1940's! Today, we live in undoubtedly the most distracted time and place in all of history. We have mini-computers on us at all times, an unlimited number of social media options, movies and TV shows on demand, new headlines every minute, the ability to travel anywhere faster than ever before, and so much more. I even decided to put some phrases of this post in bold because I figured that a lot of readers wouldn't have the attention span to simply read through the whole post. It's not a new realization that distraction is at the root of many of the issues and difficulties of millennials and Gen-Z's. But perhaps what's often unspoken is that the opposite of and antidote to distraction is attention. Weil argues that anything requiring devoted attention, even simply working on a geometry problem or memorizing Spanish verb paradigms, develops the capacity of attention that is required for not only prayer, but even the ability to love others well. 

On Friday morning, the short devotional for the day in Henri Nouwen's lenten guide was entitled "Paying Attention to Blessings," and encouraged the reader to "stop, listen, pay attention, and receive gratefully what is offered us." I have a little notebook that I write down little words or phrases that strike me throughout the day, and might be the still, small voice of God. That morning I wrote down the phrase "paying attention." Within an hour, someone thanked me for "paying attention" to them. An hour after that, I was internally thinking about attention and just decided to listen to the honeybees in the cherry blossom tree above me. A couple passers-by joined me, and when a fifth person asked what we were doing, one of the others answered, unprompted, "Oh, just paying attention." I stayed silent, but knew God was sending a quiet message, and I wanted to receive it. 

Perhaps this is God's quiet message to you, calling you to pay attention to what he is doing. It is no small task, and will have enormous implications. 

How can you pay attention? How can you limit distractions? Maybe staying off Facebook, maybe something as simple as keeping your phone in your bag instead of your pocket. Maybe giving yourself more time between places you need to be so you can walk slower or breathe before you get out of the car. Right now, look around you, open your eyes wide, soak it all in. Then close your eyes, hear your body. 

Look for goodness, sadness, wholeness, brokenness. Listen to others, to God, to yourself. 

Be still, even as you move. 

Pay attention.