What Do You Worship?
Squaring Up What We Say With What We Do
As someone who has been exploring, researching and contemplating what is happening to us via the screen technologies for decades now, I have come up against many, many ways that the technologies are changing what it means to be human. What it means to want. What it means to connect. What it is we believe about ourselves and the world. How we spend our time. What we make most important.
And if all of this wasn’t enough, we must also add to this list, what it means to worship.
Though I cannot say for sure, it seems to me that to worship is quintessentially a human experience. Something that arose for us at some point in time, not just as a way to deal with uncertainty, but as a pure expression of communion for communion sake. A way of relating with Reverence to Something far Greater than us because we understood something about our place in the Universe. A unique type of adoration that goes beyond the mundane affairs of life, beyond our fears and insecurities, and straight through some Sacred Portal that takes us past our small selves, and into the expression of our Highest Selves.
I believe there is an inner urge, a built-in beyond-words-knowing that compels us to give Reverence To—Something. An innate, indescribable even, urge that is vitally necessary and essential to our embodied existence. Something, that in recent decades has been hijacked, commandeered and stolen by little boxes made of metal, wire and the ever-alluring, ever-addictive false promise of redemption through constant and repetitive scrolling.
A profane ritual, if you will, of bowing our heads to something man-made. Something devoid of True Power. Something incapable of truly inspiring. Something that cares not for our lives.
Whether we will admit it or not, we are daily worshipping at the false altar of a man-made object. One created to steal our attention. One wired to keep us distracted. One embedded with the energy of narcissism, separation, fear, lack and division. This inconvenient observation is so—despite what the intellect may try and justify. Despite all of the ways we rationalize our use. Despite all of the ways we know it is destroying something about us, and still we continue on. Despite all of the ways we watch our children wither while we remain unchanged.
To worship is a sacred act. It is to connect you to the object of your reverence. It is a Holy Guide through the confusions and missteps of the world. So it goes without saying that the recipient of your affection in this regard is best chosen wisely; for there are many false gods. Many who would take this position in your life and exploit it. Many who would steal your Life Force and claim it for themselves. Many who care not what happens to you, other than that you remain fixated on, and obedient to, their message.
This is never, ever, what happens when you worship what is Real, True, Good and Greater than anything man could ever come up with. This is never, ever, what happens when you align yourself with Something Far Greater than yourself. And this is never, ever, what happens when you make the commitment to get crystal clear about what you owe your allegiance to.
Just to bring it down to the nitty-gritty of living, if someone asked you what it is in all the world that you worship, what would you say? And if someone was purely observing you, beyond anything you were telling them, what would they see? It can be so very difficult as human beings to see ourselves clearly. Especially when we are letting ourselves down. But without the courage to look squarely at what we are choosing, we will never possess the clarity needed to worship what is truly worth worshipping.
**If you would like an extended reflection on the blog, go to the 4:20 minute mark in the audio.