Missing the message

I was sitting at a graduation ceremony filled with pomp and circumstance, but the students across the aisle looking at their cellphones distracted me. The speaker was talking about the difference between doing and being, but her message was lost on those checking a recent score, texting with a friend, or playing a game.

How could they, I wondered, only to realized how often I’m guilty of the same thing. No, I’m not one who’s addicted to my phone, but that doesn’t mean I’m attentive to what life’s saying to me. Sometimes I’m focused on crossing something off my to-do list; other times it’s my calendar with little room to breathe that gets my attention. The worst is when I feel I know all I need to know and look away from the meaningful moments surrounding me.

Just as I felt bad for the commencement speaker, I also feel bad for God when we don’t pay attention. I believe God speaks often, but we don’t always have ears to hear. God’s artistry surrounds us, but we rarely have eyes to see. And I think God’s presence is always within reach, but we rarely make the effort to feel it. Like the graduates, we look down and not up. We focus on the trivial and ignore the profound.

I guess I should be grateful to the students, not annoyed. They illustrated something of which I’m often guilty. They may not have learned anything at their graduation, but I did. The speaker was good, too.