We scroll through life
We numb the pain
Dopamine running through our veins
We laugh out loud but deep inside
Something sacred slowly died
There are a great many times I am told I am stuck in the ’80s and my response is, “I liked it then”. I think it is interesting how we tend to like particular eras whether it be fashion, movies or music.
A song that has made an impact on me recently has been Praying to Nothing by Talent Stage Stories – definitely worth a listen on Spotify.
The lyricist wrote the words that opened this article, and the more I listen and consider these words, the more meaning I find in them. The message in the song is that God never left us – we walked away from Him a great many generations ago.
This has affected how we view the world today. Just imagine if we were all taught that the Earth was flat and that the horizon was the ledge and extent of all. It would affect the way we view the world, travel, and a great many other things.
What we pass on through our cultural narratives, stories, teachings, beliefs, and the knowledge we formulate, becomes our way of life and the basis that we have to make sense of the world. There is no doubt that if we compare life in ancient times, there are a great many differences to today – like all things, some good, some not so.
There were thinkings that existed in mysticism and falsehoods, but there was a belief in God. People spoke His name, spoke to Him, revered Him, and lived differently. There was a simplicity in life and I wonder whether we have improved our lives for all our “advancements”.
Fast forward, just over 40 generations and now, we no longer think the same. We do not believe as we once did, nor do we openly speak about God in general. To do so, appears to put you in the category of “religious nut”.
We seem to worship and seek so many other things. We seek pleasure and freedom, but in fact the searching for such has chained our hearts and made life more challenging.
In doing so, we lost meaning, and as we subconsciously try to find meaning, purpose and contentment now, we do scroll through life. We look for the next thing to give us joy, numbing our inner pain with alcohol, drugs, possessions and even technology.
All this time, our own internal chemical messenger, dopamine, sends nerve signals when we enjoy something and this reinforces the thing we are doing. We look at people and they all seem so happy, yet mental health is a crisis in Western societies.
I believe our sacred happiness has declined, and it is because we ran from the light. I am not sure that we can change the direction of society, but we can change our own. We never lost God; we just stopped listening to Him (also a beautiful lyric in the song).
What we teach our children today will affect generations to come, and so while I feel we are sometimes trying to hold back a tide, what we teach our children can affect our families for so many generations, if we change the heart.
These are difficult conversations, because we have already walked away from such fundamental faith as a basis for life a great many generations ago, but if only we could change our direction and try to find our way back, we may just enable our great, great, great grandchildren to live in a very different world. We have to start somewhere.
We need to recapture that silence that once existed.
Blessings,
Brian Grimes
Principal/CEO