Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety Jig

I'm heading back to "civilization". I've been through the literal desert. I've visited the spiritual desert. I'm going home through the metaphorical desert where technology, concrete, noise and the work of man's hands are, for the most part a self-created distraction from the inner desert.

Our human connections are through wires and digitized words and images...
Our journeys are traveled in isolation from one another, and at 75 miles an hour....to where, and for what purpose?
The gods of consumption and distraction keep watch over their wares...
and they increase their temples and the people say, "Amen!"
while inconvenient human beings starve at the doors of our churches of cheap instant gratification.

Is it all ungodly? No. It is the inescapable reality of the fallen world. The monks are wired and wireless. They use electricity. They use the internet and cell phones. They drive cars on highways and buy clothing and groceries and building supplies at the malls and in the cities. Even the "subsistence farmer" relies on commerce. But we do well to remember that it was Cain, exiled from his family for murdering his brother, who built the first city east of Eden and his offspring created "civilization", musical instruments, ironwork and commerce. At its roots the city is a place founded on and nurtures division, isolation, distraction and futility. But, like Cain and his sons, it is not beyond redemption. Like the literal desert it can become the icon of our death set before us and if one can attend to the heart and enter silence, His voice can be heard and we can see Christ, even here.