I sometimes wonder if one of the reasons religious practice and an adherence to time-tested moral values are weakening in the lives of so many is because we move too much and too rapidly.
This is something I have been thinking about for a long time. I wonder how any of us are able to develop a sense of the religious and the human when we cannot sit still very long.
I live along a freeway. Thousands of people go by every day. Thousands. All apparently going someplace; someplace only temporarily. Then the next day, they will go somewhere else.
Where are we heading? What is our destination? How do we know where to go when we need to move, change?
I have with humor said to my family many times over the past ten years or so that it would be a good experiment to run — me making a temporary “vow” to stay put within a defined geographic area, say the city limits of the town in which I live, or perhaps the township or county of my residence. Stay put for an entire year, and see what happens. How would I feel? How would I occupy myself? How would my prayer change? How many people would take the time to come to my home? What would God have to say to me during that year?
I dare say it would be a giant leap of faith and a self-abandonment into the arms of God.
I have been toying with this for decades actually. All the way back to the years in which I was discerning whether I was called to the monastic life. I spent some time wi
I have thought about this myself in terms of people moving from house to house and location to location. Certainly we want to locate our family in a safe environment. We also want to avoid getting too attached to a specific domicile. On the other hand, I wonder if there aren’t negative effects of moving from house to house to improve one’s social status. How does this affect children and their idea of stability? They end up having to change rooms, neighborhoods, friends, schools, and parishes. Will they allow themselves to have deep friendships when they may be asked to sever them in a few years for the sake of moving to a better neighborhood to a house with more garage space for the boat, RV, snowmobiles, and ATVs? Perhaps I am being too severe here but my wife and I decided early on to let our kids grow up in one place if we could. It’s not a realistic option for everyone, I know, but I think there are positive reasons to do so if you can. One more reason to keep still and stay off the upwardly mobile treadmill to a seemingly better and more materialistic life.
Be still my heart…. for you will be restless until you rest in Him.
Deacon Joe Weigel