Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Antidotes


We are becoming addicted to the deadly substances of incoherence, glibness, crudeness, rudeness, and kitsch.  Truth takes the hindmost. The answer:

1. Read good books.
2. Talk about them with friends.
3. Have conversations about what matters.
4. Pray deep and wide and long, by yourself, with others, and in the church. That means use a prayer book for most of it.
5. Spend protracted time alone with God and your Bible.
6. Refuse PowerPoint.
7. Refuse video games.
8. Refuse ubiquitous entertainment.
9. Lament this fallen world. Be specific.
10. Rejoice heartily when grace is revealed.
11. Listen to others, without the obstructions of mediations: earbuds, laptops, blue tooths, text messages, and any other egregious theives of practicing the presence of people.
12. Be polite to strangers: say please and thank you. Be patient in lines.
13. Observe art object when you can. Stop, think.
14. Yes, be different--for God's sake and your own and for others.
I could go on and on..

2 comments:

VinAlly said...

Re #4: I'm really digging the podcast Morning Prayer from the Episcopal Church in Garrett County these days.

Krave said...

"Practicing the presence of people"...what a revolutionary concept in this day and age!