Recently I heard a homily (sermon) that provoked my
thinking. The speaker was talking about
Americans’ obsession with shopping. I
relaxed, thinking that the sermon would not apply to me. I hate shopping! The thought of going to a mall, simply to
walk around and “window shop” seems as insane to me as jumping off a tall
ladder. When I have to go shopping---and
I mean, “have” to go---I know what I want.
I go directly to whatever it is, buy it and leave as expeditiously as
possible.
But the speaker soon brought me into his web of
indictment. It was very clever, because
I did not see the theme of the homily to be indictment. I know he would shudder that I introduced a
legal term, like indictment. He is
actually very non-judgmental. And of
course, indictment is a direct accusation meant to head directly to
judgment. So let me say, I was
spiritually indicted.
You see, the real point was not actually about
shopping. The real point was about
value. The real point was about the
things we value. Let’s stay with the
idea of things, leaving other people out of the picture for the time
being. Much of the value we attribute to
things is not inherent value. Many
things are given arbitrary value.
The example my speaker friend used is interesting. If I go shopping for a shirt, the sales
person might tell me the shirt was $50, but I can now buy it on sale for
$30. I quickly hand over my credit
card. I smugly think that I have “saved”
$20. But then, my balloon of smugness is
popped when my friend reminded the audience that only warped Americans would
think they just “saved” $20 when, in fact, they just spent $30! He sardonically added, “I was taught you only
save money if you don’t spend the money!”
I was hooked. I was
intrigued about the process of how I value things. In many cases somebody else has determined
the price---the value---of the thing.
The price is supposed to tell me what the thing is worth. As I began to think about it, I realized the
price of something and its worth are not necessarily the same. It is possible that a thing has a price and
it is worth less to me. Or it might even
be worthless to me. My value of it is very
different from its sticker price.
Of course, it is easy now to transition to a discussion of
other aspects of life. In fact, every
day we indicate how we value our lives.
We all “spend” time doing something---or spend it doing nothing. How we spend our time reveals what we
value---what we “say” is important. As I
have often said, time is a gift. Every
day we are alive, we are given a gift of twenty-four hours. It is as if God hands us the time envelop and
says, “It’s yours; spend it as you wish.
I want to see what you value.”
When I put it this way, I do feel indicted. Most of the time I probably don’t actually
see time as a gift. Of course, I don’t
think I earn the time I am given. In
reality I don’t really think about it.
When I put it honestly, that means I take it for granted. If this is true, then I am basically not
grateful for my time. I don’t really
value it. It is worth less than it
actually should be.
If I don’t value it, then I cannot appreciate it. I am confident one of the spiritual keys of
life is to live such that you are aware of the gift that life is and to
appreciate that gift. This quality of
spiritual life is not found on a shopping spree. There is no mall in America offering a deal
on spiritual life. There is no sticker
price and never will there be a sale.
There are no tricks to the spiritual life. But there are some sure building blocks that
we can put into place to create a vibrant spiritual journey. One of these blocks is the basic awareness of
the gift of life itself. If I can become
aware of my life as a gift, then I can begin to value my life and begin to
build a life that is worth something. As
I grow spiritually, the worth of my life increases---becomes more worthy.
If I continue living life spiritually, then I will “spend”
more and more time in worthwhile endeavors.
I may not become a saint, but I will be on the way. There is little room for pride or smugness
here. There is no room because I
continually remember that my life is a gift.
I am not lucky. I am not
fortunate. I simply am gifted---just
like other human beings.
But with gift comes responsibility. I have the responsibility to place
appropriate value on things (and on people).
The early part of the spiritual journey is to see where I have misplaced
value and to correct that. There are so
many ways in our culture to misplace values or to be duped by the values
culture places on things. I don’t see
myself as a dope, but I am a dope if I have been duped by misplaced cultural
values.
It hit me! I have an
opportunity to re-evaluate; I can look again at my valuing. Is it misplaced? Where is the right place for my values---the
source of my worth? I conclude it is in
God, in the spiritual journey and the building up of the spiritual community.
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