“Essentially a soldier, the Christian is always on the lookout.
He has sharper ears and hears an undertone that others miss;
his eyes see things in a particularly candid light,
and he senses something to which others are insensible,
the streaming of a vital current through all things.
He is never submerged in life, but keeps his head and shoulders clear of it
and his eyes free to look upward.
Consequently he has a deeper sense of responsibility than others.
When this awareness and watchfulness disappear,
Christian life loses its edge; it becomes dull and ponderous.”
Fr. Romano Guardini, p. 177
(late season coneflowers / Julie Cook / 2021)
Awareness.
Merriam Webster tells us that the meaning of the word awareness is:
knowledge and understanding that something is happening or exists.
And so as we now find ourselves watching the shadows lengthen while pulling
our jackets ever tighter in order to fend off the oncoming cold…
in reality, we are doing more than merely watching shadows and
warding off an ensuing chill..
we are actually entering into a season of both gratitude and of
great anticipation.
And thus I cannot help but to be reminded of this notion of awareness.
It is that almost innate ability to know and to understand something that
does indeed exist yet which is without a visual, tangible or physical
existence.
Not seen, nor touched…and yet…it is.
It is a visceral awareness of something other then…
or is that something more than?
It is something that reaches beyond the realm of here and now.
It is something that resides deep within rather than blatantly
outward.
And despite it not being something that is physically touched or held,
nonetheless, it is.
It exists because we are indeed aware.
We have a deep knowledge that it is indeed happening and active.
We yearn to see it, touch it, feel it, hold it…and yet despite
it being simply beyond our reach…we still know that it is indeed real.
It is something that lingers in both our capacity for thought
as well as within our basic sense of understanding.
And it is in that sense of awareness and understanding and knowing that our
brain actually acknowledges its existence.
We simply don’t imagine it into reality.
We don’t dream it into reality.
We don’t wish it into reality.
Because that which is, is indeed of reality.
We are aware and acknowledge the existence of this entity because we
cognizantly know that it is.
And whereas our emotions reassure us of its reality, it is our brain’s
ability to make us first aware and then secondly to assist us to acknowledge
that which is…as we may then fully proclaim the reality.
Our brain tells us what our heart already knows…
that being the simple awareness of Love…
And thus we find the transcendence of Love in both time and space.
As we become both aware of as well as full of the knowledge of it very existence.
We become fully conscious that this entity, this awareness,
this thing known as Love…exists in all that was,
all that is and all that will be.
And thus the emotion becomes the acknowledgment and awareness of
Truth.
Our Truth.
Our Hope.
Our Home.
Our saving Grace…
“O God, I have tasted Thy goodness,
and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more.
I am painfully conscious of my need for further grace.
I am ashamed of my lack of desire.
O God, the Triune God, I want to want Thee;
I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still.
Show me Thy glory, I pray Thee, so that I may know Thee indeed.
Begin in mercy a new work of love within me.
Say to my soul, ‘Rise up my love, my fair one, and come away.’
Then give me grace to rise and follow Thee up from this misty
lowland where I have wandered so long.”
A.W.Tozer
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