Two experiences that you might have been yours during Lent might come to mind again. Jesus may have tried to teach you (surely he continues to try to teach me!) that, as Fr. Henri Nouwen notes, "being is more important that doing" p. 44, Spiritual Directions. Secondly, "the heart is more important than the mind" p.44, Spiritual Directions.
People will say about themselves or another person that he/she is a driven person. I wonder if we driven folks ever stop to consider that God does not need us to be working, doing 20/7. God desires that we be with him during the course of the day. We don't have to be trying to accomplish to prove that we have accomplished goals. So often, if we look at ourselves carefully, we might be able to see that our drivenness drives us away from God and his love.
Likewise a technology driven culture also can drive us away from God. While a marvelous storehouse of accomplishments, the tech world can drain love from our hearts. Having endured bypass surgery and continuing to walk through the recuperation program, I have come to wonder if the large number of heart surgeries in recent times might be another sign that work has cheated us out of living with an awareness that regardless of the brain power we achieve, the heart is a most important organ in our bodies. Have we let our drivenness build an ever growing wall of separation between ourselves and fully loving as we should?
Perhaps our Lenten reflections may have brought us at one moment or another to a fork in the road ... challenging us to choose the better path for our lives. Did this thought cross you mind during the days of Lent ... or even afterwards?
