The quality of mercy is not strained. It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath. It is twice blest: it blesseth him that gives and him that takes. William Shakespeare
Atop the human body is the head. Here we inhale and exhale, consume food, see, hear, smell, and taste the world around us, and experience consciousness as provided by the brain. For whatever reason, all of this takes place at the highest point in the body.
Atop the pyramids is what is known as the pyramidion – the capstone. Typically it is a different color and stone than the rest of the pyramid and often contains the name of the owner of the pyramid etched into it. Many pyramidion of the ancient pyramids are now missing, lost to treasure hunters who valued their uniqueness.
Atop the Washington Monument is a small pyramid itself, with a capstone comprised of 100oz of aluminum and with the words laus Deo – or Praise be to God – etched therein.
Atop the Christmas tree every year are various objects of central importance to families – an angel or a star or some sort of prominent decoration that crowns the tree in symbolic fashion.
The highest point of a human or object or story is often set apart from the rest. It is the location that represents the climax of everything that led up to it or that comes afterward.
Today, we will examine the top, the crown, the climax of the nine beatitudes that Jesus shares with us at the beginning of his Sermon on the Mount. It is the fifth beatitude, and the apex of the chiasm formed by all nine of the statements Jesus made beginning with “blessed.”
And it deserves special treatment – because it is the climax of message of God to us, not just in the beatitudes, but in all of Scripture.
That beatitude is…the subject of today’s podcast.
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I do not know why there is this difference, but I am sure that God keeps no one waiting unless He sees that it is good for him to wait. When you do enter your room, you will find that the long wait has done you some kind of good which you would not have had otherwise. But you must regard it as waiting, not as camping. You must keep on praying for light: and of course, even in the hall, you must begin trying to obey the rules which are common to the whole house. And above all you must be asking which door is the true one; not which pleases you best by its paint and paneling. C.S. Lewis
We may not realize it, but our modern definition of waiting has devolved into something like this: that maddening interval of time we must endure between two successive desired experiences that leaves us irritable and discontent.
The key point to recognize here in this definition of waiting is that what we see as positive are only the bookends – the experiences on either side of the waiting period – and not the treasury of stories available to us in between.
As much as we may like to think so, life does not consist of creating an agenda and checking off each line item with as little waiting in between as possible.
Life does, and always will, consist of waiting. And so the key to life in this respect is not the impossible task of eliminating the wait. The key is establishing an altogether different definition of waiting.
We must let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us. Joseph Campbell
In today’s episode, we will attempt to derive a true definition of waiting, to accept it as an inevitable and necessary, and to embrace its presence…through embracing the present.
Source Scripture
Good News or Fake News? – Matthew 5:1-2; Luke 6:17-20
Inside Man – Matthew 5:3-12; Luke 6:20-26
Escaping the Matrix – Matthew 5:3; Luke 6:20,24
Have a Great Mourning – Matthew 5:4; Luke 6:21,25
Meek in and Meek Out – Matthew 5:5
Just Right – Matthew 5:6; Luke 6:21,25
Extras
Suggested Scripture: Psalm 22; Psalm 37; Psalm 42
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Extras
Shall we hire a herald then… or shall I myself announce that… the best and most just man is happiest. Plato
Plato concludes his famous work Republic with this declaration by Socrates. The entire work focuses on one central concept: justice, or righteousness.
In fact, there are those who believe that the correct title of Plato’s work is not Republic, but On the Righteous Man.
The Greek word at the heart of this 2400 year-old work is dikaiosune. Sometimes it is translated justice. Sometimes it is translated righteousness. The reason for this juggling match is that English does not have a single word that encapsulates the intended meaning of Plato’s subject.
An accurate translation might be as follows: harmony with purpose – what is right and good – within the soul and in relation to others.
The concept of harmony is at the heart of this concept of justice or righteousness. It implies multiple musical notes played simultaneously that produce the sound that is “right”, not discordant or “wrong”.
Do this, say Socrates and Plato, and you will be the happiest person alive.
Today we will examine a single statement of Jesus in which he not only sums up the entirety of Plato’s republic, but takes it a step further, inviting us all to sing in perfect harmony – and be our happiest.
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When lenity and cruelty play for a kingdom, the gentler gamester is the soonest winner. William Shakespeare
The day is June 5th, 1989. The city, Beijing, China, is soaked in the blood of soldiers, students, and bystanders after the Chinese army’s violent suppression of protests in Tiananmen Square.
A column of four tanks, just like the one that had plowed through a crowd hours earlier and killed eleven people, is rolling down the street near the square. An unknown person, known since that day only as Tank Man, walks in front of the steel beasts that could easily crush him. He stops. His arms, carrying shopping bags, are down by his side. He makes no gesture of hate. He has nothing with which to attack. He simply stands there, facing them, knowing that he possesses no power whatsoever with which to physically halt the oncoming instruments of war.
The tanks attempt to maneuver around the man, but he calmly shifts his position to stand in their path. The choice becomes clear. Those in power must decide whether to use it and kill a man who calmly stands there or to stop.
The captains cut the power to their engines.
The photo that captures this moment and the story behind it is awe-striking. What captivates us, in this case, is the wonder of how gentleness can be as or more powerful than murderous military force.
The gentleness with which a single man subdued a column of tanks that could have easily taken his life is known as meekness. And in today’s episode, we will explore how we can tap the forces within in order to forego the forces without, transforming both ourselves and our world with the gentle power of meekness.
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I should very much like to live in a universe which was governed by such lines [where happiness and kindness abound and they always lead to good things]. But since it is abundantly clear that I don’t, and since I have reason to believe, nevertheless, that God is Love, I conclude that my conception of love needs correction. … Love is something more stern and splendid than mere kindness. … Kindness, merely as such, cares not whether its object becomes good or bad, provided only that it escapes suffering. C.S. Lewis
When suffering strikes, we seek instant relief. Our instinct is to eliminate the suffering by locating the source and then elude it, shield ourselves, or counterattack.
These tactics are natural and necessary, but what are we to do when they fail us? What do we do with the suffering for which we cannot pinpoint the source? Or, perhaps even worse, how do we endure suffering from an obvious cause but no method of escape?
We deem inescapable suffering as intolerable. And why shouldn’t we? Our underlying definition of the good life excludes all forms of suffering. We spend countless hours and dollars creating and purchasing insulation from suffering.
And yet still, it finds us. And when it does, our desperation to escape the inescapable sends us into wailing and writhing under its weight. And finding it unbearable to remain still, we run down every dead-end road that offers an appearance of relief, only to find none.
We play the victim, crying out for sympathy. We play the blame game, seeking respite in revenge. We reread our certificates of entitlement and petition the world to take note. We ingest numbing agents. We preoccupy ourselves with pleasure. We fortify our defenses against further pain. We deny the very existence of our suffering, but it only reappears in the camouflage of anger, busyness, or anxiety. Or we succumb to hopelessness and drag ourselves through each day.
None of these solutions produce true comfort. But there is another that does. And that solution is mourning – pure mourning – free of impurities, additives, and alternatives. When we enter the state of true mourning, we finally find comfort. And, we find ourselves.
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Extras
The Awestruck Podcast musical playlist
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Recommended Reading
We conquer nature, we augment our power and wealth, we multiply the means of distracting our attention this way and that…but the despair burrows in deeper and grows fatter; it feeds on our secret sense of having failed the potentialities of human being….Out of despair, they grow burdened with moral embarrassment for themselves, until they must at last despise and crucify the good which they are helpless to achieve. And that is the final measure of damnation: to hate the good precisely because we know it is good and know that its beauty calls our whole being into question. Theodore Roszak
From the moment our memory offers us a glimpse into our origin story until now, we have likely navigated life with the unquestioned assumption that we must assert control over our environment in order to achieve any measure of happiness. This is the kingdom in which we live – to establish and maintain control – so that we may, on-demand, summon the experiences to which we believe we are entitled: pleasure, popularity, prosperity, protection, and the progressive preservation of this presuppositional power.
The inescapable outcome of such hubris, whether individual or collective, leads not to happiness – but variegated forms of its opposite.
It is impossible to control everything, especially when our peers seek the same, and so once enough trial and error confirm this, we despair. In dismay we double down our resolve – knowing of no other way to press on – and inexorably resort to manipulation, deceit, and varying degrees of force ranging from passive aggression to wholesale violence.
And yet, if we ever become still enough to listen to the depths of our own souls, we would hear a gentle voice from within crying out there is another way. There is an alternative kingdom in which you can live.
The beauty of this voice and the magnitude of its truth call our whole being into question. We are faced with either hating this challenger of all we have become and labeling it a siren, lashing ourselves to the mast of control, or abandoning ship and succumb to the call.
In this kingdom to which this voice calls us – this alternative mode of reality – the currency of control has no power to purchase happiness. In fact, quite the opposite is true.
Today we will explore the sound of this voice from within and the kingdom to which it calls us – where the currency of control is worthless – to ascertain if it is siren… or Savior.
Source Scripture
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Extras
The Awestruck Podcast musical playlist
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Quotes
Impoverishment is a teacher, unique in its capacity to renew and that its yield, when it ends, is a passionate openness that in turn reinvests the world with meaning. An intensity of awareness is impoverishment’s aftermath and blessing. Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg
When deeds and words are in accord, the whole world is transformed. Zhuangzi
In the world of cyber security, there exists a device known as a firewall. The firewall sits between the outside world and a company’s informational resources, sniffing every atomic particle of traffic asking to be let inside. It trusts nothing without examination. It is incessantly on guard, executing thousands of rules aimed at keeping out the bad and letting in only the good.
But as good as it is, the bad actors on the outside are sometimes better, and eventually, a Trojan horse slips through and brings down the business.
You and I have our own firewall. We are incessantly alert, trusting no one and no news without careful examination. We cannot afford to allow anyone or anything inside that has any intentions beyond our best interests. Beyond truth. Beyond love.
Like many businesses, we have been burned. We have allowed news inside that we later discover to be false. We have allowed people inside who we later realized just wanted to use us and then discard us.
All these experiences convince us to harden our firewall. To the point where we even keep out truth. Where we even prevent anyone from coming inside because we are afraid that their motives and intentions are malicious.
The end result is confusion and loneliness. Skepticism. Mistrust. We become increasingly jaded. That firewall becomes a shield we carry, and it grows heavier and heavier until we can barely move through life at all.
For those of us who need truth and love, we are too afraid to let it in. For those of us offering it, we find it increasingly difficult to get past those overreactive firewalls.
There is only one way to deliver the payload of truth and love that will make it through these hardened defenses: a synthesis of words and actions devoid of selfish motives and replete with a longing to see the well-being of the recipient.
Today, we will encourage you how to relax your firewall to receive this payload – and how to be that payload for those in desperate need of it.
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I no longer believe that we can change anything in the world until we first change ourselves. And that seems to me the only lesson to be learned. Etty Hillesum
Etty Hillesum, like Anne Frank, was arrested by the Nazis and transported to camp Westerbork. And, like Anne Frank, she wrote diaries of her experiences before her arrest. Etty continued to write at Westerbork, documenting not just the atrocities taking place around her, but the inward transformation taking place within her.
Though surrounded by evil, she chose to immerse herself in the good she believed permeated even her increasing darkness. At Westerbork she wrote, “The sky is full of birds, the purple lupins stand up so regally and peacefully, two little old women have sat down for a chat, the sun is shining on my face – and right before our eyes, mass murder….
“Those two months behind barbed wire have been the two richest and most intense months of my life, in which my highest values were so deeply confirmed. I have learnt to love Westerbork.”
Etty Hillesum wrote these words not long before she was ushered aboard a train to Auschwitz. There, in the crowded boxcar, she wrote her last known words on a postcard that she then tossed out of the train. It read, “We left the camp singing…”
When evil and suffering surround us, it is easy to let the darkness take hold of us and become part of us. We know no other response than to fight back in rage or attempt to escape the pain with unhealthy distractions or curl up in the fetal position on the floor and weep.
Those will be our responses if we immerse ourselves in the shadows we face. But where there is shadow, there is light.
It is not easy to overcome the darkness. We need help. The good news is we have it. We have been invited to immerse ourselves in a new way of thinking and living. We are designed to walk in this light.
But in order to let go of our current way of thinking and living, we must first immerse ourselves over a period of time fully in the light until it begins to penetrate the darkness within us.
Source Scripture
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Extras
The Awestruck Podcast musical playlist
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Resources to Explore the Life of Etty Hillesum
Book: An Interrupted Life
Book: A Life Transformed