Paying Attention To What?

   I rounded the corner of a hallway I have walked through hundreds of times before only to be standing face to face with a wall. It literally was not there the day before. I was walking through the underground hallways of St. Francis hospital when all of the sudden my route changed. I had been in the hospital the day before, but this wall had been erected since I had last passed that way.
   I found myself paying more attention as I walked the rest of my visit there - what else had I missed? What else had changed along the path that had once been routine?
   Later, that same day, I found myself standing in the middle of the Linwood Cemetery waiting for the start of a graveside service. I looked up the hill to see the marker at the burial plot of General Henry Benning, the lawyer and Civil War soldier from Columbus who is the namesake for our city's most famous landmark now. Beyond that marker, in the distance stood the Medical Center. I thought about the juxtaposition of a place that intends to bring healing with a cemetery where loved ones are laid to rest. I thought of the contrasts between the two. I then thought of some similarities, too.
   Finally, riding back from my visits and settling into my routine, I found myself paying attention to some of these thoughts. You could say I was paying attention to what I had been paying attention to. That is when it hit me: I had been missing something all day.
   I've been encouraging each of us to spend some time this Season of Lent in silence. I've asked us to consider turning off some things - televisions, smartphones, music, and distractions - in order to allow God to speak to us in the silence. Silence can allow us to pay closer attention to the ways God is leading us. But, we have to work at it. For all of the attention I had been paying that day to hallways at the hospital or landmarks in downtown, I had failed to listen to the One who gives all these things meaning. Spending time in prayer, meditation, and silence before God requires effort. It is more than just the passing of time. It has the power to heal and to guide. Jesus said, "Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.” (Mark 6) May we spend some time in silence paying attention to the Spirit of God wanting to lead us. Grace and Peace, Scott

An Update from the Building Committee

   The Hallway Renovations will be wrapping up this week and next week. The new and expanded Women's Bathroom is on track to being finished in the next week, also. As the bathroom nears completion, they will be able to put down the carpet tiles in the back. On Monday, March 31, the ceiling tiles and grids from the front will be removed, the walls will be painted, the new ceilings will be installed, and the new baseboards will go in. Because of this, the church office will not be accessible except by phone or email next Monday through Wednesday.
   The Parking Lot plans were signed on Friday and submitted by French and Associates to the City for review and approval. Still on track for starting in early May.

BREAKING NEWS: John Travolta's Vintage Mercedes Stolen

   It seems John Travolta's vintage Mercedes sports car has been stolen. It happened in Santa Monica, California. Travolta parked the car on a residential street Sunday afternoon and stopped in at a nearby Jaguar dealership for about 10 minutes. When he returned, he found an empty parking spot and no sign of the car, a 1970 Mercedes-Benz 280-SL. You can read about it here in the AJC. There, you can also read about the efforts to have Troy Davis' execution stopped, a shooting at a preschool, deals on travel packages to Canada, a 3-year-old who fired a shotgun inside a automobile, a review of the first night of Dancing with the Stars, the latest on Charlie Sheen and Ashton Kutcher, and plenty of talk about the Atlanta Braves' recent woes. 

   It is staggering to think about the limitless stream of events and stories happening right now... How does any one newspaper decide what to cover and what to leave off? I think editors have a difficult job. This struggle extends out to a wide-range of media: newspapers, television, radio, and even internet sites. In one way, their task is reactionary: they print the news as it happens. In another way, they have some discretion as to what to send reporters out to cover. They have to think about sales, so winnowing down the list of topics must include some thought about public interest and preference; Columbus' residents are not interested in local politics of Saskatchewan. 

   In a real sense, we all have the same challenge, though. Each of us makes decisions daily on what gets our attention. What will we listen to on the television in the morning, in the car as we drive, or at night when we sit down to unwind? What stories do we read in the paper or online? I am no different; I get my print news by browsing the headlines that come across my twitter feed, where I follow news agencies around the country and world. I tune into one specific station on the radio, too. I am making conscious choices about what I tune into, with my ears or eyes. 

   From a very young age, we have learned that gaining and keeping attention is power; think about a young child calling their parent's name over and over and over again. It has been true across the ages. We grant power in our lives to those people and things to which we give our attention. Jesus said using our eyes can lead to destruction, and went so far as to suggest serious steps to prevent it from happening in Matthew 5. The Hebrew prophets proclaimed that we must give attention to the commands of God (see Jeremiah 7) and pointed to heartache and suffering when we failed.
   So....pay attention! Avoid gossip. Listen to people who speak the truth. Avoid conversations  on trivial matters. Tune into news that matters. Read good books and lengthy articles that expand your mind. Do all of these things that you might use the gift of your time and your mind for the glory of God, and not for the glory of something so much less.