The idea of the whole world being a place of worship may sound crazy to some people. A lot of things that go on in the world, frankly, don't seem terribly holy. Whether it's a war overseas, the threat of terrorism, or neighborhood kids seemingly gone bad, the world seems like more a mess than anything else.
Where is God in all of this? Is He (She, It, They) even bothering? Some people I know, who grew up with a Christian background, seem to have taken a Don McLean approach to how God looks at this world-- he took the last train for the coast the day the music died, and the music died a heck of a long time ago. Maybe the Divine Guy had high hopes when he created Adam and Eve from a speck of dust or caused the Big Bang or formed Lucy from whatever evolutionary process comes from a cosmic mind. But his mind sure changed when he saw what a screw-up this whole scene was, and vacated the premises for something a little more worthwhile of his time. People sometimes think this way, even as they teach their kids to pray and to look at the heavens and say, God is there. God seems up in the heavens because he seems so far away from us.
So then, why even bother to see the holy in this world when it left a long time ago? What the heck is holiness? Maybe people who look for holiness in a fallen world are just whistling in the dark and saying ain't it grand, when if these people thought logically, they'd realize there was nothing grand to be whistling about.
But being logical like that, in the end, may not be logical at all. At the very minimum, believing that holiness is omnipresent, be it throgh the Judeo-Christian ethic or belief in the goodness of humanity, is a measue of hope. A life of intense cynicism leads to a life without hope. Hope is the sustaining virtue in a world of madness. Hope is what causes people to rebuild after disasters brought on by nature and war. Hope is what compels a battered woman to risk her life by starting over again. Hope is what drives a person to see beyond the present circumstances to believe that there is a higher purpose for what is happening, that something holy is watching over them, holding out a better future for them. A life with hope can sustain disaster, a life without it eventually falters. There is no logic in that lifestyle.
It is in this vein that I suggest that seeing the holy within the everyday is something that connects with this hope. The seemingly randomness is not random at all; instead, all that takes place is something that leads each human individually and the human race collectively to its highest purpose, which is love. Whistling in the dark? Maybe. But until someone proves to me that finding love instead of despair leads to a fulfilling life, I'll be here, whistling away.
