{"id":26227,"date":"2025-12-15T09:39:06","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T14:39:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=26227"},"modified":"2025-12-15T10:23:42","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T15:23:42","slug":"26227","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=26227","title":{"rendered":"Are We Open to Awe?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"I Can Only Imagine - MercyMe (Lyrics)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/BEF-3oFVjLo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p>The roots of ultimate insights are found \u2026 on the level of wonder and radical amazement, in the depth of awe, in our sensitivity to the mystery.&nbsp;<br>\u2014Abraham Joshua Heschel,<em>\u202f<\/em><em>God in Search of Man<\/em><em>&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Richard Rohr teaches that awe is a foundational spiritual experience that keeps us open to the mystery of God:<\/em>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I believe the basic, primal, foundational spiritual intuition is a moment of awe and wonder. We say, \u201cGod, that\u2019s beautiful!\u201d Why do we so often say \u201cGod!\u201d when we have such moments? I think it\u2019s a recognition that this is a godly moment. We are somehow aware that something is just too good, too right, too much, too timely. <strong>When awe and wonder are absent from our life, we build our religion on laws and rituals, trying to manufacture some moment of awe.<\/strong> It works occasionally, I guess.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I think people who live their lives open to awe and wonder have a much greater chance of meeting the Holy than someone who goes to church but doesn\u2019t live in an open way. We almost domesticate the Holy by making it so commonplace. That\u2019s what I fear happens with the way we ritualize worship. I see people come to church day after day unprepared for anything new or different. Even if something new or different happens, they fit it into their old boxes. Their stance seems to be, \u201cI will not be awestruck.\u201d I don\u2019t think we get very far with such resistance to the new, the Real, and the amazing. That\u2019s probably why God allows most of our great relationships to begin with a kind of infatuation with another person\u2014and I don\u2019t just mean sexual infatuation, but any deep admiration or appreciation. <strong>It allows us to take our place as a student and learner. If we never do that, nothing new will happen. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I think Russian writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn understood this when he wrote, \u201cThe Western system in its present state of spiritual exhaustion does not look attractive.\u201d [2] It\u2019s a telling judgment. The Western mind almost <strong>refuses to be in awe anymore. It\u2019s only aware of what is wrong, and seemingly incapable of rejoicing in what is still good and true and beautiful.<\/strong> The surest way out of that trap is through a new imagination and new cosmology, often created by positive God-experience. Education, problem-solving, and rigid ideology are ultimately inadequate by themselves to create cosmic hope and meaning. Only&nbsp;<em>great religion&nbsp;<\/em>can do that, which is probably why Jesus spent so much of his ministry trying to reform religion.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Healthy religion, which <strong>always makes space for Mystery<\/strong>, gives us a foundational sense of awe. It <strong>re-enchants an otherwise empty universe<\/strong>. It gives people a universal reverence toward all things. Only with such reverence do we find confidence and coherence. Only then does the world become a safe home. <strong>Then we can see the reflection of the divine image in the human, in the animal, in the entire natural world\u2014<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">which has now become inherently \u201csupernatural.<\/span>\u201d<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>=============================<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Joyful Worship<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p>Grant me the curiosity and awe so that I may honor the bottomless, limitless wonder, beauty, and mystery of this world.<br>\u2014Brian McLaren,&nbsp;<em>Do I Stay Christian?<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Poet and essayist Kathleen Norris considers how our language can dampen our expectation of experiencing awe in God\u2019s presence:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Modern believers tend to trust in therapy more than in mystery, a fact that tends to manifest itself in worship that employs the bland speech of pop psychology and self-help rather than language resonant with poetic meaning\u2014for example, a call to worship that begins: \u201cUse this hour, Lord, to get our perspectives straight again.\u201d Rather than express awe, let alone those negative feelings, fear and trembling, as we come into the presence of God, crying \u201cHoly, Holy, Holy,\u201d we focus totally on ourselves, and arrogantly issue an imperative to God. Use this hour, because we\u2019re busy later, just send us a bill &#8230; and we\u2019ll zip off a check in the mail. But the <strong>mystery of worship, which is God\u2019s presence and our response to it,<\/strong> does not work that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The profound skepticism of our age, the mistrust of all that has been handed to us by our grandfathers and grandmothers as tradition, has led to a curious failure of the imagination, manifested in language that is thoroughly comfortable, and satisfyingly unchallenging. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Brian McLaren reflects on the spontaneous joy and awe of true worship:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Why are the most blessed often the most restrained in their worship, and why are those who have the least in terms of health, wealth, and safety the most ready to \u201cmake a joyful noise\u201d and \u201csing for joy to the Lord\u201d? Is it because they relate to God primarily from their heart rather than their head?&#8230; Could it be that our accumulation of possessions and protections coat our souls like rubber gloves, so that we touch, but do not feel?&#8230; Could it be that the conceptualized and formalized worship of the \u201cdeveloped world\u201d is actually designed to inhibit and control rather than foment joy?&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The scandalous truth, known by mystics throughout history and affirmed in the pages of our sacred texts, is that <strong>when we connect with God, it is as if we are plugging our souls into a pure current of high-voltage joy. <\/strong>The joy that surprised me under the stars [<a href=\"https:\/\/email.cac.org\/t\/d-l-gtdzkd-tlkriywur-j\/\">in my mystical experience<\/a>] in my teens was exactly what the ancient psalmist knew (Psalm 16:11), that <strong>God is a joyful being and to enter or awaken to God\u2019s presence is to enjoy a bracing jolt of invigorating delight<\/strong>\u2026. Yes, there is indeed a place for quiet reverence, the dignity of robes, and the noble tranquility of marble columns and pipe organs. But \u2026 God is joyful, and God\u2019s joy is contagious. When we tap into the joy of the Lord, <strong>when we step into the pure joy that burns like a billion galaxies in the heart of God, we\u2019ll soon find ourselves shouting, dancing, singing, leaping, clapping, swaying, laughing, and otherwise jubilating and celebrating. <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The roots of ultimate insights are found \u2026 on the level of wonder and radical amazement, in the depth of awe, in our sensitivity to the mystery.&nbsp;\u2014Abraham Joshua Heschel,\u202fGod in Search of Man&nbsp; Richard Rohr teaches that awe is a foundational spiritual experience that keeps us open to the mystery of God:&nbsp; I believe the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26227"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26227"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26227\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26232,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26227\/revisions\/26232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}