What is our focus?

What is our focus? Is our focus just on what we think is real — those things that are tangible, that we can touch? Is it on the relationships we have right now? Is it on a vision of the future? Is it on something from the past?

What I observe is that many people seem focused on earthly power. I’m using that term broadly, as a type of catch all. In a way this makes sense — we are in fact on earth after all. What is earthly power — it’s those things that give us a sense of control and identity — government, partisan loyalty, money, work, fame, influence, war, etc. We often have a focus on these things because they are part of our lived experience. But I wonder if they become something more — the things we actually believe in. The things that we see as actually real.

How real is our faith? Is it an afterthought? Is it just a compartment of our lives? Or is it more integrated?

Too often it seems that the spiritual is dismissed. It’s abstract, out there, non-tangible. We can’t really control it. We can only encounter it. And it’s not objective — it’s very subjective, which makes it even harder to get a hold of.

Too often we act as though the spiritual is something separate that we encounter — something separate from the tangible “real” world that we live in every day. I wonder if many people consider the spiritual something not quite real. And when it’s not quite real, do we diminish it so that we can have a sense of control over it? Often the spiritual becomes a personal private piety — something that…