chasing rabbits

Today in A Year with the Church Fathers, St Augustine tells us about the danger of chasing rabbits.

He is more than anything iterating the advice given in the last few readings about avoiding distractions. But he makes a good point in the process. He tells us that "fool that he is", he gets absorbed in something that is shallow and small rather than focusing on God and eternal things.

He is speaking straight into our lives today. We don't usually chase literal rabbits... but we are totally and completely distracted all day long, every day. We spend every second of every day distracting ourselves with our phones and Facebook and email and Snapchat and the news and our music... we usually don't have even a few seconds of silence and quiet in our lives to let our lives speak to us.

And it's important to realize that God speaks to us through our lives. He speaks to us in the simplest, smallest things that happen in our daily lives. But if we spend every second with earbuds stuffed into our ears, we miss out on that still, small voice.

Don't get me wrong... I'm plugged in all day every day, too. And there is great good that comes from being connected to our friends and family in a way that was completely impossible before today.

But we need to remember to carve out some time to focus on what He is saying to us in the quiet, vacant moments of our lives.

God, please help us to seek Your voice in our daily lives.