Our collect for today urges us "not to be anxious about earthly things . . . things that are passing away." We all know what things in our lives claim out attention and allegiance and how they may lead us astray from God's way. We may not want to admit them even to ourselves, but when we pause to consider them, we begin to see how much time and energy we spend on "earthly things . . . things that are passing away." They seem so important at the time; we can't imagine what life would be like without them.

Yet . . .

As we mature in our spiritual life, our eyes are opened to see that it is our relationship with the Beloved and with one another that matter. We realize that we need to focus our attention on Love, love for God which we demonstrate in our care and appreciation of and respect for each and all, and for all creation. We discover how self-centered we have been and continue to be, even as we surrender our hearts to the Holy One over and over again.

That brings us to the spiritual attitude and practice of detachment, what Henri Nouwen calls "holy indifference." We don't have to become ascetics, but we do need to let go of whatever we have allowed to become barriers to our deepening relationship with the Holy One. The Beloved wants us to enjoy all creation that God brings forth for our pleasure, but when temporal things become more important to us than the Divine, it's time to take stock, to identify the earthly things that have somehow become idols for us without our even noticing, and let them go. When our hearts are so full of "earthly things . . . that are passing away," there is no room for God's indwelling presence.