Awareness

Genesis 15, verses 1 – 6:

Here God speaks to Abram (before his name is changed to Abraham – and a name change in the bible is often indicative of a dramatic change in the person’s life, their purpose, etc.) – through a vision.   So right off the bat we get something unusual.   And God tells Abram that, in spite of his age (in the hundreds of years old!) he’ll have a son.   “Look up into the sky and count the stars if you can.   That’s how many descendants you will have!”    Not only a son, but a huge number of descendants as well.  

Then Paul – in the Hebrews reading (chapter 11, verses 1-3, and 8-16) – talks about having hope in the things of God… trusting in God’s will by faith.   Here Paul references the Abraham story – as a way of affirming trust in the messages of God.   Paul believed through faith in a living God!   He really did believe in a God of purpose!   And he believed we human beings were/are part of this purpose.

 “Abram” and Paul certainly seemed to get messaged from God.    Whether Paul (whose name was also changed – from Saul to Paul) was in personal communication with God or not (like Abraham seemed to be)… one cannot question his dedication to the mission he believed God had for him.

    

And Jesus for sure obviously had a sense of purpose… not only himself, but for us “regular” people as well.  All three had more than just awareness of God’s presence, but an open-ness to… and communication with… God.

In this Gospel reading – Luke Chapter 12, verses 32 through 40 – Jesus tells a story admonishing the listener to keep awake, to stay alert.    The master of the house may come back any time.   So as servants of the house, we must all be ready.      Jesus says – Wake up, look around you!

I have neighbors that I just don’t wave to anymore as they drive by me.   I used to.    But it doesn’t do any good.     The way they drive, they are oblivious of anyone and anything around them.    They look forward… and ONLY forward!    They only see what’s in front of them.   

At first I thought it as me… but I’ve seen them drive in other locations as well, and never have I seen them turn their heads as they drive.    I don’t know how they do it?   I’ve often told my daughter – a new driver of only a few years – she should be aware of what’s around her.   For example, if you see a deer on the side of the road, assume there are other deer as well.   “If you see one deer… there are probably more… so slowdown and keep a good eye out for them!”  

To be a good driver you have to be aware!   You have to not only look at the road, but you have to look in your mirrors, you have to turn your head and see what other vehicles might be around you, you have to look for pedestrians – especially kids.  

The same thing can be said about life.    The same things can be said about OUR OWN lives.    Aristotle – I think – said that an unexamined (or unconscious, or unaware) life is not worth living.     Now, I probably think that “not worth living” goes a little too far, but still… there is a difference between being aware and not being aware.  

Jesus says  Pay Attention!    Like Abraham and Paul did!

It’s an issue of awareness –

   Where’s your awareness?

   What are you paying attention to?

   And what are we missing?

Here’s an exercise:   Don’t think about the saliva building up in your mouth.   Forget all about the saliva in your mouth.    “What saliva…   MANNNN!!”  

I bet now you have to swallow don’t you?!

Well, you normally don’t even think about this.   Here’s another one- bring attention to your feet now.   How do they feel right now?   Are they hot?   Do your feet feel pressure in your shoes?     

As “aware” as we may think we are… there’s a lot that we miss.   Or, there’s a lot that we just assume as true.   Or, there’s a lot that we haven’t noticed enough to even question.   

In the summer of 1996, I was doing my clinical chaplaincy in an Independent Living Center/Assisted Living Center/Nursing Care Center all in one.  In the Nursing care side, I used to go visit an older lady at least once per week.   She didn’t speak.   She didn’t move.  She just laid in bed.   Well, she could move only one thing, and that was her eyes.   She obviously had a whole slew of things wrong with her.   And she really couldn’t move or talk.   And the only thing she really could move were her eyes.  

I remember the first time I “met” her; the medical staff had already told me she couldn’t move or talk so I knew what to expect.   I can’t remember if they also told me she had some cognitive issues as well – I didn’t try to do the “blink once for yes, and twice for no” thing, and that may have been why.  

I knew what to expect from her!   But I didn’t know what her condition would do to me.    So I walked in to her room, introduced myself, and sat to face her.    Her head was turned my way so I could see her eyes – and she was staring at me.   And it sure didn’t take long before I got very self-conscious being there in her room with her.  

I’d talk; say something, maybe ask her a question.   But I never realized up until that point how dependent I was on non-verbal communication, on body language.   Through the whole time, I only saw her eyes move… blink…    Did she understand me?   Did she want me there?   Did she not want me there?     I didn’t know.     I didn’t know what to say… and then the silence was awkward too!   

And after 12 weeks of visits, our last visit was so much different than the first.   I’d gotten to “know” her better.   Really- I got to know myself better as I was around her.   I was so much more at ease – I was more aware of my dis-ease… and instead of projecting this into her – or into our time together… I knew it was me.    And I may have even shared with her along the way that I felt a little awkward and that she probably felt a little awkward as well.    Well, we’d gotten all that out of the way, and had a chance to move on from there.   I’d talk… or remain silent… or pray… or not pray… all while she stared at me, blinking on occasion.  

  

In the story of Adam and Eve, it’s in the text that they walked with God in the garden during the cool of the day.    Then comes the part of the story where both Adam and Eve eat from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil.   And then comes the time of day where God and the couple do their evening walk… and they’re nowhere to be found.   

God asks:  “Where are you?”  

And they respond: “We’re hiding!”  

“Why are you hiding?”     

“We’re naked?”  

“How do you know you’re naked?”    You’ve always been naked… what makes today different???

How do you know you’re naked?     What made you aware of this?    And that’s the key question!    Now… they’re aware of their nakedness!   They were becoming self-conscious.    And that’s what people do as they grow.   Little children don’t usually really care about being naked.    But they get a little older… and NOW they are aware of what this means.  They are becoming more self-aware.  They become more modest.   And this is normal and healthy psychological growth.    It’s part of growing up.   And so is becoming more aware of ourselves in life; among other people, of our emotions, of our reactions, etc.  

Although there’s more to this whole “Self-Awareness/Self -Consciousness” stuff… especially related to responsibility and growing up.   But I want to focus on the “Awareness” side of adulthood.   But first some questions:

What is a “Mystic”?     From Wikipedia:   

Mysticism is the pursuit of communion with, identity with, or conscious awareness of an ultimate reality, divinity, spiritual truth, or God through direct experience, intuition, instinct or insight. Mysticism usually centers on practices intended to nurture those experiences. Mysticism may be dualistic, maintaining a distinction between the self and the divine, or may be nondualistic.^[1]

Such pursuit has long been an integral part of the religious life of humanity. Within established religion it has been explicitly expressed within monasticism, where rules governing the everyday life of monks and nuns provide a framework conducive to the cultivation of mystical states of consciousness.

In the contemporary usage "mysticism" has become an umbrella term,^[2] conflated with spirituality and esotericism.^[3]

Practices associated with mysticism include meditation and contemplative prayer. Mysticism can be distinguished from ordinary religious belief by its emphasis on the direct personal experience of unique states of consciousness, particularly those of a transcendentally blissful character.^{[citation needed]}

So- what’s the difference between a mystic, and a non-mystic?   

How do mystics live their lives that’s different from how non-mystics live theirs?    

I would venture to guess it has a lot to do with what we’re aware of… and what we’re not aware of.

Have you ever looked at your live as a story?   This is a different way of encouraging awareness…

Mark Nepo – a poet – asks the question:   ”How are you tending to the emerging story of your life?”

 

It’s worth asking again…      How are you tending to the emerging story of your life?

Are the events in your life random?   Coincidence?    Accident?       Or is there a direction?   Is your life unfolding? 

Where are you in all this?     Where is your life leading you?   What is it unfolding towards?     And… where is God in all this?

Last year I went with a family here in the parish to a farm that raises vegetables for either non-profit organizations or churches to help distribute food to those who need it.   The couple who lives on the farm work it with the help of many volunteers.    And we were one of those groups of volunteers to help collect and harvest vegetables.    I was talking to the farmer who runs the place, and he told me some stories of faith and God in their lives.     He told me how he and his wife had gotten there.   He used to be an investment banker in New York, making lots of money.   But his spirit was empty.    So they prayed and asked god to guide them.   And they eventually were led to the farm they were on.  

He said he knew pretty much nothing about farming at the time, and depended a lot on those around him to teach him what he needed to do.   And he needed money to buy some of the big farming machinery.    There was always more they needed to get, and never enough money to get it.    

He pointed to one of the huge pieces of machinery off to one side and told a story;  they needed a machine like that, they were all too expensive.   So they prayed for Gods guidance and help.   He’d been looking for some used piece in various sources – but they were all far away (how would he get them back to the farm?) and even those were too expensive.   Then a few days later he saw one advertised for about $6,000 and it wasn’t that far away.     So they prayed and he went off to get it.  

But it didn’t work.   How were they going to get it to work?   He said his wife told him – if God wants you to have it, God will make sure you can get it to work.  Trust God and pray.    So they did.   Not long after, while he was away from the farm he got an anxious call from his wife that a tough looking biker-type guy had come by and asked to if he could speak to her husband.   She told him to come back the next day.    Well, he rushed back home in case there was any trouble – he wanted to be with his family just in case.

The next day the biker guy did in fact return, and asked to speak to him.   As they walked around the farm and the fields, the biker-guy said he’d led a pretty unsavory life, and wanted to change his ways.   He’d wanted to give his life to God, and be led by God from now on.    He’d found out about what this farmer was doing – raising food for the needy – and he wanted to be a part of helping people in this way.    “Okay… what can you do?”   “I’m a mechanic – I specialize in farming equipment… like the big piece you have there”, pointing to the non-running machine he’d just bought.                      

We weren’t there very long – but what this farmer was doing, and how he did it, and the stories he told… all pointed to a life of listening to God… to paying attention to the unfolding… of tending to the emerging story of their lives.

When Mother Teresa died, she was already a saint in the eyes of many.   I remember seeing a survey that came out not long after her death where the surveyors asked people what they thought of Mother Teresa.     Of course the opinions were glowing!   She was a saint!    Then the same people were asked if they could do what she had done.    NO!   It was good that she did it, but most respondents could not do this.

See – we believe in God.    We believe God is active in the world.   And we also believe that in theory God could communicate with people.    But we do;t often think anything like this could happen to us!   

Well, maybe God might “talk” to me about something small… but nothing big.   And maybe God could be with me in something small, but nothing like what Mother Teresa did.      

How are you tending to the emerging story of your life?      When you drive through life, how do you drive?   What do you notice?   And how often do you ask where God is?   And where you both might be going?