The Four Gs of Life Part 2

 

This week, we are playing with the 4 Gs of life ~ the 4 ways of seeing and being and living in the world today.  These are: glance, glare, gnaw, and gaze.  To glance at the world means that we are so busy, amid the flurry and frenzy of life, that everything becomes a blur.  Our sight is constantly surveying our surroundings, we see but we don’t see, because life is swirling past us like a car racing down the interstate at 125 mph.  When do you find yourself glancing at your life?  I can do this when my schedule is too full, or I am running late, or my list is too long.  I can do this in the grocery story, when I am just looking for my normal box of cereal and miss the new and improved brand of Cheerios.  I can do this at meetings when I think I am listening but I am looking at my phone. 

Speaking of meetings, sometimes my glance turns into a glare, which happens when I feel threatened and my amygdala sounds like the robot from Lost in Space, “Danger Wes Bixby, Danger”.  This is usually not because there is a lion in the room, but because the other person is challenging me, or I feel foolish, or I am tired or hungry.  We start to glare when someone presses the nuclear code of our emotional well-being.  They say something political or make a joke based on race or sexual orientation or just say something cruel.  We live in a world today, where our default is glance and glare.  We are usually scrolling our social media feed until someone’s comment causes the tiny vein in our neck to pulse with rage and we want to respond with a witty, sarcastic comeback that puts Uncle Sal in his place. 

Sometimes this glaring turns to gnawing.  We can chew the actions and words of others constantly.  Or they can chew on us!  We let the news simmer in our souls, drowning out the good news, because we are not fed a steady diet of the loving kindness that is happening in the world right now.  Sure, each news cast has one Good Samaritan story to wrap things up, but after twenty minutes of telling us the world is going to hell in a handbasket…and ten minutes of commercials telling you that your life is clearly lacking this new brand of Cheerios you missed at the store last week and you will thrive if you just go buy a box today…how does one story at the end of the newscast tilt the scales of our emotional amygdala back in balance?  It doesn’t.  Then we wake up the next morning ready to glance, glare, and gnaw on life again. 

To gaze is different.  To gaze is what Mary does in Luke 2, Mary ponders all the shepherds tell her in her heart.  She doesn’t just “see” with her eyes, but with her soul.  She doesn’t glance at the ragtag group of shepherds who came to the makeshift delivery room, she doesn’t glare at them interrupting her, even though she is exhausted after giving birth, she doesn’t gnaw at them, saying, “This is who God chooses to be our social media reps?  Good Lord!”  She gazes because she stares into the eyes of God’s love poured out in Jesus.  Today, be aware of the ways you glance, glare, gnaw, and gaze.  Note when and where and who can cause you to shift how you see and what you see.  You may want to make a chart ~ because everyone loves a chart ~ and in each box write one experience and example of when you did each of the four “G” words we talked about today.  I pray you will be playful with this.  I pray you will ponder this in your heart as Mary did at Christmas.  I pray this practice wakes you up to both how you see and what you are seeing ~ or to connect with the Good Samaritan how you are being and what you are bringing into the world today.  Amen.