Where Do We Find Safety and Direction?

Greetings,
    January 17th was the anniversary of the death of Antony of Egypt in 356, which reminded me of his twenty year solitude in the desert at Pisper near the Red Sea.  I also thought of our friend Asher who is still struggling to make a Christian witness in the Islamic government of Egypt.  Antony reported that he there fought the demonic powers and overcame the forces of evil on their own turf: the interior life of the self.  Which leads one to Teresa of Avila and The Interior Castle.  When attacked by the Inquisition she said, “Fix your eyes on the Crucified and nothing else will be of much importance to you.” 
    We live in a very complex world.  The advantages of modern inventions and advancements have a price.  The personal computer which has transformed our lives already, and is about to bring an even greater revolution, has greatly diminished our privacy, our rights, and our space.  To protect our safety we have cameras on the streets watching the sidewalks for crimes, we have cameras on street corners to record traffic violations, we have cameras on the highways and roads watching the traffic flow, and at the same time recording with great clarity all those who pass by.  By car, by foot, in and outside stores and banks and businesses and schools we are taped and recorded.    There are few places left where we can go for private reflection.  We ultimately must turn to our interior space to find answers to the questions of life and to find direction for the living of life.  We must still confront the evil on the battlefield of our inner selves. 
    Helen H. Lemmel wrote:
            Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
            look full in his wonderful face,
            and the things of earth will grow strangely dim
            in the light of his glory and grace.
   
    God continues to call us, away from the world and to the glory of the Kingdom.

Yours & His,
DED