head turner

So at the gym they have four t.v.s in front of the exercise bicycles and treadmills.  From right to left they are CBC, TSN, MTV, and something to do with shopping, I think.  So I'm on the treadmill the other day, trying to read the closed caption on TSN so I can see who won which football game (that would be NFL, real football, but that's another post another day).  As I watch, I realize that the (MTV) screen beside mine has some form of fleshly gyration that, though I am still interested in the football games, catches my eye.  I glance to the right, simultaneously disgusted and intrigued, and find a few seconds goes by before I return to TSN.  What was that? Not just on the screen, but what is it in us that has us turn our heads to stuff we didn't want but got tricked into thinking we wanted?  Then I noticed, I wasn't alone on this one.  In glancing at other treadmillers and exercyclers, I notice a common theme -- heads turned to the right.
I laugh inside.  Maybe a bunch of chiropractors around town are going to be having a conversation like this with their patients over the next few days, "Not sure why you have a stiff neck, especially with all the exercise you've been getting on the treadmill."
And then, instead of laughing inside, it hits me in the gut.  There are distractions all over this town.  And they don't just twist and disorient spinal columns but entire lives.
Suddenly, bits of the Book I heard when I was a young boy in Burlington are making sense, all about keeping on the straight and narrow, not straying off the path, and so on.
Those pleas from the Desire weren't meant to block our joy, just to help us keep running straight.
And not just on the treadmill, either.

Just Listening

So, the goal is to listen.  Listen and observe.  And hopefully, with the Spirit's help, get tuned in to what the people around me are trying to tune in to.  See, my theory is this:  everybody wants.  Everybody wants more than what they have.  If they stop wanting, stop desiring, stop seeking for more, then they are saying they have found it all.  And even those of The Way who know they've found it all, or Him, they keep wanting more. So, the thing is, whether someone has found The One, or the The Way, they get known by their wants.  And all wants, when you get right down to it, if our Designer got this right (and I am pretty sure he did), all our wants find their fulfillment in the Desire.  Desire of Every Nation.  Like U2 sing about in 'Desire.' Like Augustine said in the beginning of 'Confession' - "our hearts are restless until they find rest in thee."
I'm thinking that every person I share this wonderful little town with is full of want, and that that want, that desire, can only be filled ultimately, by the Desire of Every Nation.
Except, even those who follow the Desire don't spend their desire on the Desire.  We too often spend it in other places, distractions, bunny trails, addictions.  I heard once that when Promise Keepers comes to town the neighboring hotels' pornography usage goes up.  I don't know if it's factually true, but the fact that it is believable makes the point.  Nobody has all their desire aimed right.  Not even the ones who know where to aim it.
And so when I listen, and observe, I don't do it by looking down my nose, but from a position of understanding, somewhat.  That even though this beggar has found bread, I still let myself go hungry sometimes.  And that maybe more when I remember my hunger than when I think of myself as full, I'll be useful to my fellow citizens whose hunger has never truly been sated.

Oh, and in the meantime, I hope I learn how to blog.  Because so far, it's jibberish.