What I am trying to describe here is the sacred gift of seeing, the ability to peer beyond the veil and gaze with astonished wonder upon the beauties and mysteries of things holy and eternal. A. W. Tozer
To see is to discern with clarity what is…
C.S. Lewis addressed what he saw as the oncoming blindness to what is in his book The Abolition of Man.
Plato before him had said the same. The little human animal will not at first have the right responses. It must be trained to feel pleasure, liking, disgust, and hatred at those things which really are pleasant, likeable, disgusting and hateful. In the Republic, the well-nurtured youth is one ‘who would see most clearly whatever was amiss in ill-made works of man or ill-grown works of nature, and with a just distaste would blame and hate the ugly even from his earliest years and would give delighted praise to beauty, receiving it into his soul and being nourished by it, so that he becomes a man of gentle heart. All this before he is of an age to reason; so that when Reason at length comes to him, then, bred as he has been, he will hold out his hands in welcome and recognize her because of the affinity he bears to her.
Reason, both C.S. Lewis and Plato insist, follows a natural conformity to the existing harmony of the Universe – to what is. To see is to recognize this, much like a beginning piano player must strain to learn the existing workings of the piano and how dancing her fingers across the keys can create something beautiful.
To see and know what is, then, precedes reason. Reason flows into us once we take in the wonder – the splendor – of the true nature of being.
Today’s episode is a review of the previous six episodes, where Jesus concludes his Sermon on the Mount as a revelation of the true nature of being and then proceeds to immediately fulfill the deepest desires of a man gripped by suffering to be restored to his true nature.
And in all of these episodes, all the while as Jesus is opening our eyes to us what is, he is also peering directly into the depths of our souls to reveal our longings, our needs, and our blindness to the truth and whispers to us, “I see you – and I want to heal you.”
Source Scripture
Matthew 7:13-14
Matthew 7:15-20; Luke 6:43-45
Matthew 7:21-23; Luke 6:46
Matthew 7:24-27; Luke 6:47-49
Matthew 7:28-29
Matthew 8:1-4; Mark 1:40-45; Luke 5:12-16
Connect
Twitter: @AwestruckPod
Email: info@awestruckpodcast.com
Extras
I realised that my anger created restlessness, brooding, inner disputes, and made prayer nearly impossible. But the most disturbing anger was the anger at myself for not responding properly, for not knowing how to express my disagreement, for external obedience while remaining rebellious from within, and for letting small and seemingly insignificant events have so much power over my emotional life. In summary: passive aggressive behaviour. – Henri Nouwen
Anger is like fire. Under control, it can bring much-needed warmth to a cold environment or form a backfire to stop the spread of a raging wildfire. But out of control, the smallest of sparks can ignite an inferno that races to consume and destroy.
Controlling anger is not, as we might often assume, merely the exercise of withholding caustic words or violent deeds. Containing the anger within the confines of the body does not bring it under control – it suppresses. Compresses. Distresses.
Left in this state, we smolder. And the resulting pressure requires release. It will either build a backdraft that explodes when someone or something opens the door, or it will seep out at regular intervals in a period – or even a lifetime – of passive aggression.
Some of us, without even knowing, live in a perpetual state of anger – like the coal fire in Centralia, Pennsylvania, that has been burning underground since 1962. And in this state, everyone – and everything – agitates us. Or, more destructively, we find ourselves wondering we explode at the slightest provocation.
Today, we will take a fresh look at unsettled anger – how to determine if we need to extinguish it, or build a good fire that helps others. And, in most cases, we learn how to avoid creating the drought conditions in the soul that allow it to burn uncontrollably in the first place.
Source Scripture
Connect
Twitter: @AwestruckPod
Email: info@awestruckpodcast.com
Extras
The Awestruck Podcast musical playlist
(Apple I Spotify)
Read 1 John 1. How does this passage relate to today’s podcast and help you examine your inward life as it pertains to anger? Where do you see the ministry of reconciliation to God and others? How does hypocrisy sneak into our lives to prevent us from seeing how our refusal to reconcile warps our view of the divine?
Books to Read
Unoffendable by Brant Hansen
What is that religion that sanctions, even by its silence, all that is embraced in the ‘Peculiar Institution? ‘ If there can be any thing more diametrically opposed to the religion of Jesus, than the working of this soul-killing system-which is as truly sanctioned by the religion of America as are her ministers and churches-we wish to be shown where it can be found.Sojourner Truth
Though it seems unfathomable, there was a time when so-called followers of Jesus justified the kidnapping, ownership, forced labor, separation from families, torture, and killing of human beings who were in no way different from themselves beyond the color of their skin.
Religion, as we see in this horrifying example from recent history, can easily misappropriate the name of Jesus and hide behind it a system of belief and practice that bears no resemblance to the name it takes in vain.
Such misappropriation continues full force today, albeit in more nebulous forms with vague boundaries. More clear is the racism that still unfortunately exists. Less clear, on the other end of the spectrum is the general failure of religious institutions that bear the name of Jesus to adhere to this hallmark of his teachings: love your neighbor as yourself.
How does this happen? How does an individual, group, or institution that claims to follow Jesus succeed in living and promoting a lifestyle diametrically opposed to the religion of Jesus, as Sojourner Truth sought to understand?
The source of the problem appears to be two-fold. The first is the wanton lust of the ego. The ego wants what it wants and, left unchallenged by the soul, will write any name – even that of God – on its shield as it marches forward to slay anyone or anything in the path to fulfilling its desires. The second reason is equally insidious but less recognized. It is this. The systematic reduction of Love God and love neighbor to endless rules and regulations meant to deflect attention from the target of love and legitimize a particular form of false piety.
Today, we are going to tackle the tough problem of misappropriation as it pertains to religion and attempt to ferret out any that may exist in our own hearts so that we may return to what matters: divine love.
Source Scripture
Through the Roof: Matthew 9:1-8; Mark 2:1-12; Luke 5:17-26
Connect
Twitter: @AwestruckPod
Email: info@awestruckpodcast.com
Extras