Episode 368 - Straining Out Gnats and...

I've been much affected by the pictures of murdered and bombed children from Israel and Gaza in the last week, and found myself comparing these unutterably tragic losses with some of the other issues on which our world is fixed. It almost seems like there's no comparison between the bloody burial sheet of a five-year old child and the concerns that dominate much of public life. So Christ's words in St. Matthew's Gospel, Chapter 23, verse 24 came to mind: "You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel." So much time and mental energy goes into straining out "a gnat" when there's a "camel" (for example the loss of a child) that's the real issue. The more contemporary phrase for this is "elephant in the room". I thought about the way I seize on making the bed every morning. One's ridiculous mental focus on that "gnat" of a task has become habitual. It is almost as if, if the bombs were falling and Mary and I had to get out of the building, I would feel I had to stop and make the bed first. (Are you kidding me?) So the point of this cast is to look at the "camel" that you're really needing and trying -- unsuccessfully, for sure -- to swallow (i.e., digest/assimilate) in relation to the ten thousand gnats that you actually spend your time ... processing. Down with "process" and Up with proportional focus! (Oh, and see that window in Cadeleigh Parish Church.)