A Most Auspicious Occasion

Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength. Corrie Ten Boom

We worry when we direct our focus to something we want beyond our current grasp of control. We cannot abide the uncertainty of achieving our goal, and this state of consciousness produces anxiety.

We then believe that to overcome anxiety and find peace, we must create methods and procure resources that provide us with the right amount of power and control.

The curious state we now find ourselves in is one of double anxiety. To get what we want, we must first get something else, and we worry about the prospect of obtaining both.

If we do not question this default approach to living, we will succumb to its relentless grip on our soul and live in either the anxiety of either acquiring control or preserving it. The present moment will remain elusive as future concerns usurp it.

Worry is the enemy of peace. Of shalom. Of bliss. Worry aspires to be hope, but falls far short because it has no one to hope in beyond the self-centered ego. 

When we are free of worry, we experience the bliss of of what really matters: the present moment. The naked now. We find ourselves trusting in God’s providence, resting in his promises, and able to experience the joy of His presence and the presence of others.

The present moment is a most auspicious occasion, and with it today we will pursue the ruthless elimination of worry.

Source Scripture

Matthew 6:25-34Luke 12:22-32

Connect

Twitter: @AwestruckPod
Email: info@awestruckpodcast.com

Extras

The Awestruck Podcast musical playlist 
(Apple I Spotify)

Missing Person

Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand. [Margery Williams, “The Velveteen Rabbit”]

Note in this beautiful metaphor that the real you is not connected to your physical self, and those who think it is don’t understand. That’s because the real you is also not connected to the ego’s way of thinking.

The search to find the real you should not have to wait until your body is aged and falling apart, but for many it does. Too often, it takes a lifetime of trial and error before we finally realize that the ego’s pursuits have not and will not produce any connection to the real.

You can’t find real fulfillment until you discover who you are. Until then, you’re a missing person. And you are missing personhood.

This is what Awestruck is all about – finding that missing person. And doing so requires a different focus – a different quality of attention – than we are used to assuming.  This quality of attention is centered on the soul and not the mind. And once we grasp that quality of attention – once we are awestruck – it opens the door to the journey. The hero’s journey to the center of you.

Why do we call it a hero’s journey? And where is this center of me of which you speak? And what’s this business about needing to be awestruck to begin? And where in the world is this podcast going?

In today’s episode, I will attempt to answer all of these questions.

Connect

Twitter: @AwestruckPod
Email: info@awestruckpodcast.com

Extras

The Awestruck Podcast musical playlist 
(Apple I Spotify)

Opening Presence

A human being is a part of the whole, called by us “Universe,” a part limited in time and space. [One] experiences [oneself] . . . as something separated from the rest—a kind of optical delusion of [one’s] consciousness. . . . Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. —Albert Einstein 

Presence is what happens when we choose to bring the full attention of our soul to the soul of another – and the other does the same. In that moment, the two souls come together, creating presence: a tangible flow of spiritual intimacy. 

Creating and maintaining presence is not easy. It requires the full attention of our soul, – not our ego or any of its attachments.

The ego is full of self-promotion, self-defense, hidden agendas, hideous masks – and a host of other things only break presence. But the soul is raw, authentic, vulnerable, full of love and acceptance. You might say presence is what is birthed when two or more souls come before each other in only naked truth in the naked now.

The goal of today’s podcast is to help us open our presence to others, and, taking it a step further, to assist others in unfolding their own potential to open their presence as well.

Source Scripture

Preserving Presence: Matthew 1:18-25

Connect

Twitter: @AwestruckPod
Email: info@awestruckpodcast.com

Extras

The Awestruck Podcast musical playlist 
(
Apple I Spotify)

Wide-Eyed Wonder

He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed. – Albert Einstein

Wonder is a quality of attention that rises above and outside normal rational thought. And once we have wonder flowing through us, we find ourselves with access to its tributaries: love, joy, peace, gratitude, and many others. 

Today, in wide-eyed wonder, the goal is to get us through the wilderness of ego-driven attachments to that river. There, we can not only experience wonder in the present and future, but we can also reframe our past in a way that lets us reinterpret even the most painful moments through new lenses.

Source Scripture

Newborn Wonder: Luke 1:57-79

Connect

Twitter: @AwestruckPod
Email: info@awestruckpodcast.com

Extras

The Awestruck Podcast musical playlist 
(Apple I Spotify)

JJ. Abrams Mystery Box (Ted Talk)

Yielding to Joy

Participate joyfully in the sorrows of the world. We cannot cure the world of sorrows, but we can choose to live in joy. – Joseph Campbell

Joy. We all want it. We chase it. We devise formulas to reproduce it. We do our best to seize hold of it.

But where is it?

Ask the wrong question and you will never find the right answer. 

Joy is not something we chase, or concoct, or grasp. It is something to which we yield. In order to experience it, we must let go of what thwarts it.

You don’t find joy. You yield to it and it flows through you. 

Source Scripture

Joy Flows When Souls Connect: Luke 1:39-56

Connect

Twitter: @AwestruckPod
Email: info@awestruckpodcast.com

Extras

The Awestruck Podcast musical playlist 
(Apple I Spotify)

Brené Brown on Joy as Vulnerability