Tuesday Men's BS (Bible Study) continues in John's Gospel, Chapter 3. Week to week pace is slow but steady, since the discussions and life experiences that enter in seem to be chewed exceedingly fine. When we got to the part about Jesus declaring his blood (what God gives his creatures life with) and body (physical, Earthly presence) must be taken in (eaten) by his followers, many of those trailing behind him turned away. Then addressing the 12, Jesus confirms that these are the ones he's chosen and among them one is a devil (shaytan; satan).
One of the men at the Tuesday morning discussion elaborated some of the role playing of that fallen angel, Lucifer: Accuser, Deceiver, and Tempter. Against those manipulations we have the Lord's Prayer, given in the book of Matthew: (please) "lead us NOT into temptation." Among media-savvy national leaders in some of the countries, elected ones or positions seized simply by brute power, these same 3 functions can be seen: accuses, deceives, and tempts those paying attention with visions of grandeur. This likeness to the functions of Shaytan is significant.
Reading the list of functional roles in reverse, perhaps there is a recipe for what is good instead of evil: not to accuse means to hear out in full and with trust and love. Not to deceive means to be honest, caring, and truthful (not truthiness veneer, but the deep-down core identity). And not to tempt means to reduce risk of distraction, waste of time, resources, gifts, words, energy and effort such that the person should not be deflected or be led astray.
Yet as entertainment and information (news media) seems to get louder, more intrusive and abrasive, more present in one's waking thoughts, one result is that there is too much to pay attention to, too much to give attention to, too much to be attentive to. In such a state of affairs, "attention" becomes more valuable than money, status, or reputation/image. So the small amount of attention that each person has --no matter how rich or poor, famous or unknown, sick or hale-- is worth sharing with others. It is all the more precious now than ever before. When the noise, distraction, and distorted mirror of humanity is blasted into our lives to this degree, then it becomes hard to find role models and stories of lives well lived that consist of God's love and the guidance handed down in the pages and lives told in the Bibles.
Digital fasting (turning off the stream of entertainment and too much information and clamoring misinformation) may rest one's own mind and give some perspective, but it does not alter the wider society and smaller clusters of community that make up the larger world. Wherever the answers may lie to this inexorable erosion of humanity and the loosening grip of God's love in one's heart or waking mind, the very first step is to recognize that there is a problem; to name it and then work out possible responses for the sake of self, others, and generations yet to come.
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