Escaping the Matrix

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 wayThere 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

Matthew 5:3Luke 6:20,24

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Twitter: @AwestruckPod
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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

Inside Man

Engaging inner work is the modern hero’s journey, and it manifests a life blessed with meaning. DENNIS ARCHAMBAULT 

Actions may speak louder than words, but motives have even greater volume, though they whisper.

Some say we should simply examine our motives and make adjustments if we want to improve ourselves. But this is far too shallow approach to transformation. We must not merely examine discrete, isolated motives as if they could be eradicated one by one like the occasional flies that make it into the house. No, we must scrutinize the house we are living in and see whether or not the foundation itself is crumbling, creating cracks that let allow all the flies in and is perhaps reaching a level where partial or total collapse is inevitable. 

Like the proverbial frog in the slowly boiling pot of water, we are inherently unaware of the increasing danger of allowing ourselves to remain still while our surroundings penetrate and destroy us. The frog feasts on those flies that are coming in the house and thinks he is safe, but the water temperature is still rising and will eventually kill the distracted frog – if the entire house doesn’t crush it first.

The only solution is a radical change – a revolutionary overhaul in the way we think and live. This is what the Greeks called metanoia. That word means literally, beyond thought – and that’s exactly where we are going to go today in our quest for transformation.

Source Scripture

Matthew 5:3-12Luke 6:20-26

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Twitter: @AwestruckPod
Email: info@awestruckpodcast.com

Extras

The Awestruck Podcast musical playlist 
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Good News or Fake News?

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. 

Source Scripture

Matthew 5:1-2Luke 6:17-20

Connect

Twitter: @AwestruckPod
Email: info@awestruckpodcast.com

Extras

The Awestruck Podcast musical playlist 
(Apple I Spotify)