I just did a series of lectures on the Sermon on the Mount, which will be released sometime next year,

and the prime dictum of the Sermon on the Mount is to orient yourself towards the highest good that you can conceive of,

and then pay as much attention as you can to the moment.

And so the second part of that, consider the lilies of the field, for example, sounds like a hippie diatribe,

and hippies like to refer to that section to justify their hipness, let's say.

But the first part of that injunction is very sophisticated and difficult.

So imagine that if you structured your attention optimally,

that you would be devoting every moment of your attention to putting things together towards an end

that was as positive as any end you could imagine. And I mean literally imagine that you did that.

Let's say you sat down for two days and you thought, okay,

if I could have and work towards what I would regard as the most positive possible end.

And let's say that would be for you, but for also all the people that you might interact with,

what would that be like?

It’s good to have a vision of that.

That's a vision of Jerusalem. It's a vision of the City of God.

And then the next step would be, well,

could you subordinate what you're doing moment to moment to that end?

Well, if you did, then everything you did would be imbued with meaning.

Well, that's the situation that I'm in, and so that's why I do it.

It's like I try to do the next thing that's as good as I can see possible at that moment.

And that's what I do with my words.