For most of us in this world, we find it much easier to conform to the dictates of the world than to question them, much less to challenge them. The result is sacrifice of our deepest values — our heart and soul — at the altar of the world’s value system. This value system is mostly left uninterrogated. It is a system that is not value-neutral but soaked in the ethos of greed, consumerism, and productivity of neoliberal capitalism. We do not realise this and leave ourselves vulnerable to colonisation of our souls by the predatory value-system of the world. And as a consequence, we suffer. As we suffer, we inevitably inflict suffering on others. Conflict and stress, war and violence, become the norm.
Religion often becomes part of the problem rather than the solution. Religious beliefs and ideologies stemming from religious dogmas when misapplied can create, sustain, legitimize, and perpetuate the system of the world. For example, when people say that work should be our worship, the value of work in itself becomes supremely elevated. When this happens, we justify our incessant obsession with work as a means of worship of our God. We neglect our bodily needs, the circadian rhythms of our biology, our relational needs, our intellectual life, and our soul and spiritual needs, all for the sake of work which we claim as our worship. We fail to realise that we have conflated “work as worship” with “work as our object of worship.” We end up worshipping work as our God!
Due to our social conditioning and internalized false programmes for happiness, we conflate our ego’s needs for approval and applause, wealth and position, with work as worship. We justify our “hunger” for advancement as a way of doing work as worship, neglecting our soul’s need for Sabbath rest and rejuvenation. We justify our hyperspeed at work with “glorifying God” but blatantly ignore the imperative to listen and attune to God’s Spirit. We deny and reject moving and working according to God’s cadence of grace but instead opt for our frenetic and feverish pace of corporate go-getting.
For in truth, real work as worship is undoubtedly far from go-getting and constant labour. Verily, work as worship entails a non-negotiable practice of Sabbath rest and a heart posture of attuning to the Spirit, graciously surrendering our agendas to God’s plan and purpose. We may end up working efficiently (as judged by the world) or slowly — but nonetheless fruitfully. Speed is not the issue. Productivity also is not the issue. The issue is conforming not to the world but to the purpose and pace of God. “Godspeed” does not necessarily mean “fast.” Our human notions and impoverished calculus fail to capture the true pace of God who moves at speeds known only to Him. He can be as slow as a snail or faster than light. We are not the ones to measure God’s speed!
The alternative to being captives to the hyperspeed and hyperstress of this world is to attune and align ourselves with Godspeed. For this, we learn to pay attention to the ordinary, to the fresh moments of being alive and awake without agenda. Being mindful and prayerful is not a luxury or an optional extra you add to your life. Mindfulness is the path to life itself — the mindful do not die, but the mindless is dead already, as the Buddha wisely observed. With mindfulness and discernment, you unlearn your colonized mentality and relearn how to be fully human, a person who is relational and intellectual, soulful and spiritual, creative and loving in the fullness of joy.
I call such persons urban mystics, especially if they reside in the city. I invite you all to join me in being urban mystics, living a radically different life apart from the world’s system of exploitation and working in radically worshipful ways that honour our body and soul but most of all, that truly honour our God. This is our challenge. The adventure awaits.
Image credit: YouVersion Bible.
