Ben’s April Letter
Dear Friends in Christ,
It occurred to me recently that I was feeling a bit scattered—that the tasks I had to accomplish were all very different from one another, and used different parts of my brain. “Why am I struggling to concentrate?” I asked myself. But it’s no mystery: if there are ten things requiring your focus, you will never give each of them the care they deserve. Mea culpa if I’ve missed something—so many of the things that have scattered me are exciting things we will enjoy in the months and years ahead. But the key is—there are many of them.
My missing focus isn’t just a “me” problem. It impacts all of us—our attention spans are imperiled, with wide consequences in society. If you don’t believe me, pick up any of the many books with buzzy titles about this: Dopamine Nation. Stolen Focus. How To Do Nothing. The Siren’s Call. Scattered Minds. Digital Minimalism. The World Beyond Your Head. Deep Work. The Attention Merchants. And literally dozens of others.
I’ve been thinking about all of this as we enter my busiest time of the year—the weeks before Easter. This year, the period from Palm Sunday to Easter involves four sermons, a baptism(!), my nephew’s birthday, and whatever comes up between them. A word to the wise: write down anything you need me to remember that week. But at the culmination of Holy Week is a moment of total attention: Jesus and Mary Magdalene stand in the Garden, totally alone, undistracted by anything but one another’s presence. Faced with life where she expected death, Mary can only see her risen teacher. The world kept moving that morning—people were busy starting their days, surviving, dealing with drama, enjoying life—but all that fell away in the Garden as Mary focused entirely on Jesus. The moment is improbable, miraculous, and completely unscattered. Jesus is there with Mary, joined only by her growing realization that something remarkable is happening.
I pray that in this scattered busy month (or life?) you find time for total attention to God. I hope that whether you are in worship on Easter, surrounded by flowers blooming in your garden, or enjoying a warm afternoon with the returning leaves—that you find a time for total attention on the remarkable moment that played out in the Garden long ago. It is worth clearing everything away and finding focus.
Scatteredly (for now),
Rev. Ben