Piloting Faith: Could it be that we are all living with a version of InAttentional Blindness?

A Word for the Day...

I recently read about a study done on "InAttentional Blindness." The researchers filled a cockpit with tons of instruments, each one telling the pilots information about the flight. They had blinking traffic radar, rotating airspeed indicators, gyrating altitude indicators, flight plan information, landing charts and so on. These pilots were trained to fly in high-sensory environments; all pilots are these days. Yet as the pilots were coming in for a landing, they were so distracted by all of the stimuli from their instruments that they failed to look outside the windshield to see a plane obstructing the runway until it was almost too late.

Could it be that we are all living with a version of InAttentional Blindness?

We miss seeing our spouse grow lonely because we are absorbed by our phone at dinner. We miss hearing our kids tell us about their day because our ears are tuned into the television. We miss checking in with aging parents because we are busy playing a game on our iPad.

I find myself wondering: what am I missing while I am being over-stimulated by our modern life?

Jesus went to Nazareth one time and visited the temple. When he stood up to read, he was handed the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Unrolling the scroll, he found the place where it was written,

God’s Spirit is on me;
he’s chosen me to preach the Message of good news to the poor,
Sent me to announce pardon to prisoners and
recovery of sight to the blind,
To set the burdened and battered free,
to announce, “This is God’s year to act!”

I hear this story differently now. I recognize my own deep longing to heal my inattentional blindness. I want to live with my eyes and heart open to this beautiful and brutal world unfolding around me. Let's try together.

- Rev. Cameron Trimble, author of Piloting Church: Helping Your Congregation Take Flight

Prayer for the Week

Holy One,

As I begin this year, show me how to be God-minded without being self-righteous. How to wear my faith lightly, yet hold it deeply.

I want to find that way. I want to receive the gift of piety, that I may have a rich reservoir of faith and trust in you, without an ounce of self-regard seeping in.

Keep holding me fast to your ways, and let me not take pride in doing so.

May I be mindful of you first. May I look and listen for your will in all things.

Save me from making the gifts a spiritual practice–
meditating,
reading a sacred text,
praying a sincere prayer,
walking through the door of the church –
occasions for pride, for that warm feeling of achievement that I so easily mistake for your "well done."

Let piety be your work in me, your genuine goodness suffusing my heart.

In the meantime, thank you for receiving me...just as I am.

Amen.

(adapted from The Prayer Wheel by Patton Dodd, Jana Riess, and David Van Biema)