A short YouTube vlog by Ryan Daniel Moran recorded during a road trip from Cleveland, Ohio to Austin, Texas. While briefly off the road and out of phone service, he reflects on how constant worries and distractions prevent people from noticing everyday beauty and opportunities, invoking a biblical passage ("look at the lilies of the field") to underscore the point.
I'm on this road trip from Cleveland, Ohio to Austin, Texas. And I'm currently driving north, which is a little bit counterproductive. I was seeing some friends in Arkansas and I'm going to see a friend in Missouri. And so I'm on my way up and I just had to stop and take a look. Like I'm totally blown away by this. And this is just like this. I don't even know where I am and this is just this little hole in America that is completely unsettled. I haven't had phone service for about 45 minutes.
It's amazing what happens to your brain when you're just. You have no other distractions, you know? As I'm looking at this, I'm reminded about how there's so much beauty and awesomeness and opportunity around us all the time, everywhere we look. But your brain can only process one emotion or one thought at a time. And there are times in which we are so focused on how am I going to pay bills this month or so and so said this or I wonder if that girl likes me that we miss this. Or we. Or I miss like the laugh of my 2 year old nephew or I miss the love of my parents. I miss the things that are around me all the time because I'm worried about.
A dollar or I'm worried about what's going to happen five years from now. I completely miss that. And yet it's around all the time.
I know this isn't here all the time, but the beauty and the opportunity and things to be thankful for are around all the time and yet.
We fail to recognize them because of what we're worried about. I think Jesus had a point when he said, which of you can add a single hour to his life by worrying? Look at the lilies of the field. They don't labor or spin. Your Heavenly Father feeds them. I think he might have had a point. And I'm reminded of something like this when I just, I just pulled my car off the side of the road. I'm just hanging out and I'm looking at this because I'm so taken aback by it.
So I encourage you today to look at what's around you right now that you've been missing because you've been thinking about five years from now or money or worry. Can you add a single hour to your life?
