God Is Watching Us

A short reflection on the subject of awareness of ourselves, our attributes and characteristics and how we can use the moment to add value to our actions to the benefit of ourselves and others. It is about being aware of who we are and accepting responsibility for all of our actions.
It was just a thought, really. I often hear the questions put, “Why does God allow this to happen. If there is a God there, how could He, permit such to occur?”

Decision Makers drink tea or coffee

There is an assumption that there is a God “there” and although I do not expect everyone reading this to agree, I need to put my own cards on the table and affirm my belief that He or She does exist for me.
Tragic events happen to individuals, to families to nations. Are they the acts of God or are they the consequence of human actions or inaction. Ultimately, decision makers, like the rest of us, eat corn-flakes or whole-grain something or other for breakfast. They drink tea or coffee; they have snacks, they have a favourite football or cricket or base-ball team. They are individual human beings. They are not collective clones although their thinking might reflect that from time to time. They are fathers, sons, daughters, husbands, partners. They are individuals. They, like you and I must accept responsibility for their actions and in-actions.

I am at that stage of life where I have been through many different experiences. Happily, most of them were and are very good. My childhood experiences were wholesome and healthy. A brother of mine, younger but wiser than I, says, “When we were young, we had nothing and thought we had everything. Now, they have everything and they think they have nothing.” In a very simplified and accurate way, he sums up our childhood. We were a working-class family, hardworking father and devoted mother; brought-up to believe in sharing, respect for our parents and elders generally and in honesty and integrity in all that we would undertake.

Simple Times

It was a simple lifestyle, devoid of trappings of the rich or the afflictions and deprivations of the poor. We were taught our prayers, taught about charity and kindness and taught about discipline and obedience. We were, I expect, also taught about enjoyment and happiness and we exercised our experience of both without constraint. We were taught to respect the elderly, of which there appeared to be many, since we were just young children. We addressed our seniors as Mister, Missus, Mam or Sir. There was no undue deference in doing that. It was just being polite. We would offer a seat in the bus to an elderly man or woman and would notice if no other young person showed whether they had “manners” or not.

Disposition Becomes a Habit

It is said, “Disposition becomes a habit, just as a boy becomes a man.” Well, the characteristics developed during our childhood years were certainly no burden in adult life. The values instilled in us remain as unseen guiding hands in the assessment and analysis of the challenges and demands of the adult world. That is not to suggest that, although aware of the “right” or “wrong” of any proposed action, one always took the right course. Far from it. Although we always find some justification for whatever course we take, it does not blind us to the searching questions that pop into our conscious and sub-conscious minds and with the wisdom of hind-sight in particular, we soberly ask ourselves, “What were we thinking of?”


Where is God in all of this? Simply answered, I believe He is at heart of it. Aware of His universal presence and aware that all things are connected, we are conscious that all that we do is a manifestation of who we are in all the dimensions of our lives. We are where we are supposed to be at any given point in time. How we deal with the present, at whereever we are at that point, is how we deal with life. We sometimes hide from that fact and say, for example, “I was not myself when I did such an act”. “That is not like me”, or some such expression of denial. But it is me. It is definitely not somebody else. It is me. That applies to your many successes and achievements and acts of gallantry as much as it does to those acts that we are, perhaps ashamed of or in denial.

Tempus Fugit

We live our lives at a speed of sixty seconds per minute. That is the speed at which it passes. That is also the only time in our lives that we can actually exercise any control over our lives. It is during those sixty seconds, those precious, unique, unrepeatable moments, that we can choose to do something, say something, or do and say nothing. It is during that time we choose and decide events. We do it all the time. By no doing anything or saying anything during that time, we may very well be engaging in “non-decisions.” A "non-decision” can be, in effect, a decision not to change or alter a policy or position.

Awareness

Awareness of the importance of the sixty seconds of our time is crucially important to living our lives to full potential. Awareness of our individual importance as human beings, free-thinking human beings, is exercised during those sixty seconds. Once the second has passed, we cannot recover it. We have no “Action Replay” button. We can do something later, maybe even better, but we cannot make up for the time we decided to do nothing and missed the opportunity to do something of importance.

It is important, I believe, to remember, God is not going to do for us things that we can do for ourselves. Hence the importance of being aware of what we can do for ourselves and for others, when we can do it or ought to do it and then deciding to do whatever it is. It is also said, “Hell is full of good intentions”. Well, we can create our own “hell” in this life. Opening our minds and hearts to the possibilities of helping others to experience a better place in this life is, perhaps, the most rewarding thing any one of us can do, once we choose to do something about it.

Experience the Moment

“God is watching us” comes from the song, “From a Distance”, beautifully rendered by Bett Midler. Let us resolve to look at what is around us. Experience the moment. Stretch out the hand of friendship to someone who needs it.whether that person is in our own immediate family, community or neighbourhood or much further afield. There is no shortage of opportunities. The power is in your hands. Carpe Diem.