The Four Spiritual Awes

THE FOUR SPIRITUAL AWES

(By Rev. Jim Burklo - a conversation-starter for fellowship meetings,

and a "tract" you can copy and share with students when you are "tabling"....)

Do you want to live an AWESOME LIFE? AN AWESOME LIFE IS FILLED WITH:

1.) AWE. When we encounter the Awesome One, we are filled with joyful, worshipful wonderment. The Awesome One is beyond the capacity of words to describe, beyond being named with any one name, too awesome to fit exclusively into any one philosophy or religion. ZOE: Progressive Christian Life on Campus is in awe of the agape (unconditional) love that is God.

2.) AWE for compassion. Our awe for the Awesome One makes us humble, and this enables us to feel and practice an awesome kindness toward all beings. Our humility keeps us aware that our fellow creatures are fragile and precious, needing our loving attention. If we have awe for the Source of all life, then we treat life reverently. ZOE: Progressive Christian Life on Campus is all about the cultivation of awesome compassion for all people and for the survival and well-being of our planet.

3.) AWE for freedom. Our deep, powerful attraction to the Awesome One invites us to choose among many paths and purposes. There is no one predetermined plan for each of our lives. We can be guided by our powerful inner attraction toward the Awesome One as we continually make and change our plans. We are in awe of the unique creative potentials given to each of us by the divine Source of our lives. ZOE: Progressive Christian Life on Campus celebrates this awesome freedom of Spirit, constantly seeking guidance through contemplative practices.

4.) AWE for discovery. We are always too amazed by the Awesome One to claim full knowledge of its essence or its purposes. So we remain humbly curious about the Awesome One’s ways and workings, eager to learn more through every kind of inquiry. The more we learn, the more awestruck we become, and the more we want to learn. ZOE: Progressive Christian Life on Campus integrates academic study with spiritual practice, finding God through our scientific discoveries and our insights from the disciplines of the arts and humanities.

If you put yourself at the center of your life, what happens? Do you obsess about how other people affect you? Do you worry about how you look, how others think about you? Do spend a lot of time thinking about your future – what you’ll get, what you’ll do? Are you focused on your possessions – what you have, what you want to own? What is it like if you make yourself the center of your life – living as if everything and everybody else revolves around you, as if you were the center of the universe?

How do YOU want to live? You have a choice.