The state of wonder….is itself a higher form of knowing than the explanations one subsequently seeks in the absence of that state…. If one steps out on a starry night and observes one’s inner state, one asks if one could hate or be overwhelmed by envy or resentment. … Is it not true that no man or woman has ever committed a crime while in a state of wonder? – Jacob Needleman
The reason we cannot seem to find ourselves in a state of wonder anymore is that we must lose ourselves to be in a state of wonder. The gateway into wonder has no room for the self, which is precisely what makes walking through it so wondrous.
Think back to a time to a moment when you were awestruck. Captivated. Swept away by wonder. In that moment – time ceases to exist. There is no past. No future. No desire. No ego. Anxiety does not exist here, because there is no you to feel it. The only thing that exists is the captivating subject of your attention that pulls you completely out of yourself. You are incapable of judging it. Evaluating it. Reducing it. All those forms of analysis require you to perform them. And in wonder, there is no you.
How can there be no you? No self? If there’s no you, then who is the observer? Who is the entity caught up in wonder if not you?
The answer is a paradox. The entity caught up in wonder is you. The real you. It is your naked soul, free of the ego and all of its entrapments. It is the being you long to be. That you were intended to be. That you are if you will just shed everything that attaches itself to you. To find yourself, you must lose yourself.
To be and not to be. That is the answer.
The question is how? How do we shed ourselves to enter through the gates of wonder and live in this state of being?
How can we marvel if we do not know how?
We follow the one who does.
Source Scripture
You Look Marvelous: John 5:19-30
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Twitter: @AwestruckPod
Email: info@awestruckpodcast.com
Extras
When you think of the word work, what comes to mind? For most of us, it is the time and effort required to accomplish a goal. The energy required to move an object over a distance. The physical exertion, unwanted but endured, to obtain reward.
Cast in this light, work becomes something to avoid. Escape. Evade. True happiness, we begin to believe, comes only when work is absent and leisure is present. Paradise and work become mutually exclusive.
And yet, if we go back to the beginning of time, the divine God of the Universe engaged in work to create the earth. To create mankind. To create the Garden of Eden – paradise itself. And he placed man in the garden to work it – to continue the divine act of creation by cultivating the garden to produce fruit.
God rested on the seventh day from his work of creating paradise. He rested because his work was good. Complete. Perfect.
One thing was missing, though. Adam was alone, and God said, “It is not good for man to be alone.” So he caused Adam to fall into a deep sleep – to rest from his work – while God continued to work one more time in creating Eve. Only then was paradise complete.
Adam and Eve then began life in paradise with the work of tending the garden. They worked during the day, and they walked with their creator in the cool of the evening.
Work and paradise coexisted in harmony. Work, it seems, is divine.
Until that fateful day when the serpent interrupted their work. When he slithered around the trunk of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and convinced Adam and Eve that they should ignore God’s warning and sample its fruit for themselves.
And in that moment, when Adam & Eve stopped working the garden to entertain the idea that they knew better than God and could take action contrary to his desires and direction, paradise was lost.
And so we arrive at today, where we live under the shadow of the serpent coiled around the trunk of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, gloating over us as we work under the curse of thorns and sweat and toil.
And yet, where there is a shadow, there is light. The divine God of creation is not done with his work. He is at it again. He is creating. He is re-creating. He is restoring paradise.
How, you ask? Let’s find out.
Source Scripture
Good Work! John 5:17-18
Connect
Twitter: @AwestruckPod
Email: info@awestruckpodcast.com
Extras