WEBVTT 00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:19.000 But thanks. 00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:25.000 Hey, we've been in a series called Past By. 00:00:25.000 --> 00:00:28.000 A lot of it has just been about like acknowledging 00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:30.000 the things around us. 00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:39.000 And really, in a focus on this emotion of awe, 00:00:39.000 --> 00:00:45.000 this idea that we can experience something that reminds us 00:00:45.000 --> 00:00:49.000 that, like, the ego is not good for us, that we're not 00:00:49.000 --> 00:00:52.000 the only thing here, that we are actually all connected, 00:00:52.000 --> 00:00:56.000 that there is like the definition of awe for those of you 00:00:56.000 --> 00:00:58.000 that haven't been around for like the past eight months 00:00:58.000 --> 00:01:02.000 where I won't stop talking about it, is seeing something 00:01:02.000 --> 00:01:07.000 that is so vast that's like mind-blowing that you realize 00:01:07.000 --> 00:01:11.000 how small you are and small in a good way that you realize 00:01:11.000 --> 00:01:14.000 just how much is around you, the beauty of nature, 00:01:14.000 --> 00:01:16.000 the people around you. 00:01:16.000 --> 00:01:18.000 One of the biggest ways that you can actually experience 00:01:18.000 --> 00:01:23.000 is seeing someone do something compassionate or kind 00:01:23.000 --> 00:01:25.000 for another human being. 00:01:25.000 --> 00:01:27.000 You know that feeling you get? 00:01:27.000 --> 00:01:30.000 I know for me, like sometimes you're scrolling through 00:01:30.000 --> 00:01:33.000 Instagram, which is not always the safest thing right now, 00:01:33.000 --> 00:01:36.000 or TikTok, and you see that video of somebody just like, 00:01:36.000 --> 00:01:40.000 I don't know, like doing something really nice for somebody, 00:01:40.000 --> 00:01:43.000 and you get, I don't know, for me, I cry. 00:01:43.000 --> 00:01:46.000 I get tears in my eyes and I'm like, why am I crying? 00:01:46.000 --> 00:01:48.000 It's awe. 00:01:48.000 --> 00:01:52.000 It's because it's this reminder that we are so connected 00:01:52.000 --> 00:01:57.000 and that when people experience that, it is, we experience it. 00:01:57.000 --> 00:02:01.000 So we're talking about this idea of awe, 00:02:01.000 --> 00:02:06.000 and that in Scripture it says that, 00:02:06.000 --> 00:02:09.000 and we've been taught that the fear of the Lord is the beginning 00:02:09.000 --> 00:02:12.000 of wisdom, but really the word yerah used for fear there 00:02:12.000 --> 00:02:16.000 is the word awe, it's the awe of the Lord that is the beginning 00:02:16.000 --> 00:02:19.000 of wisdom, and so we've been unpacking that a little bit, 00:02:19.000 --> 00:02:23.000 and we've talked about a lot of different things. 00:02:23.000 --> 00:02:26.000 I'm not going to recap everything, but we're going to continue 00:02:26.000 --> 00:02:32.000 in this idea of what can we do, how does awe help us, 00:02:32.000 --> 00:02:35.000 and how can we experience it? 00:02:35.000 --> 00:02:41.000 But I do want to start by naming something out loud. 00:02:41.000 --> 00:02:49.000 It's been a rough few weeks, really, like, months, year. 00:02:49.000 --> 00:02:53.000 The last couple weeks have been really rough. 00:02:53.000 --> 00:02:58.000 I think for us, like everybody, our country, 00:02:58.000 --> 00:03:04.000 and not in theory, not just on paper, like our bodies. 00:03:04.000 --> 00:03:08.000 I think a lot of us are just experiencing this and feeling it. 00:03:08.000 --> 00:03:10.000 You can feel it when you wake up. 00:03:10.000 --> 00:03:13.000 You can feel it in conversations that turn tents 00:03:13.000 --> 00:03:16.000 faster than they used to. 00:03:16.000 --> 00:03:19.000 You can feel it in how tired people are. 00:03:19.000 --> 00:03:23.000 Even when they haven't really been doing anything, 00:03:23.000 --> 00:03:25.000 they're just tired, anybody else? 00:03:25.000 --> 00:03:30.000 They just feel tired right now. 00:03:30.000 --> 00:03:33.000 That's what I said, you're probably going to get the raw. 00:03:33.000 --> 00:03:37.000 Some of it, I'll try and tape it. 00:03:37.000 --> 00:03:40.000 I don't think it's because people are weak. 00:03:40.000 --> 00:03:43.000 I think it's because people are paying attention. 00:03:43.000 --> 00:03:51.000 And this last week, I think it was this last week. 00:03:51.000 --> 00:03:54.000 It's all running together. 00:03:54.000 --> 00:03:59.000 When the news broke about the murder of Alex Prady in Minnesota, 00:03:59.000 --> 00:04:01.000 I think it shook a lot of us. 00:04:01.000 --> 00:04:04.000 I know it shook me. 00:04:04.000 --> 00:04:10.000 I spent a lot of time watching videos and analyzing. 00:04:10.000 --> 00:04:16.000 The military in me was like, okay, what happened? 00:04:16.000 --> 00:04:18.000 Why did this happen? 00:04:18.000 --> 00:04:20.000 I've got all kinds of things about it. 00:04:20.000 --> 00:04:25.000 But I probably spent too much time doing that. 00:04:25.000 --> 00:04:29.000 I shot four different videos this week to put up on social media 00:04:29.000 --> 00:04:31.000 and just never put any up. 00:04:31.000 --> 00:04:35.000 Because they'd end up being like 15 minutes long. 00:04:35.000 --> 00:04:40.000 I was like, nobody wants to hear me talk that long. 00:04:40.000 --> 00:04:46.000 And then I feel bad because I'm like, I'm not saying anything online. 00:04:46.000 --> 00:04:49.000 It's been that moment. 00:04:49.000 --> 00:04:51.000 It was just another reminder. 00:04:51.000 --> 00:04:57.000 I mean, that's just one in a series of things. 00:04:57.000 --> 00:05:01.000 And I don't think it shook me just because of the violence itself, 00:05:01.000 --> 00:05:05.000 but because of everything it stirred up underneath. 00:05:05.000 --> 00:05:09.000 Like fear and anger and grief. 00:05:09.000 --> 00:05:15.000 It's a familiar feeling of how is this still happening. 00:05:15.000 --> 00:05:22.000 And I may have told you guys this, but about a month ago, 00:05:22.000 --> 00:05:27.000 through the VA, I have like health care. 00:05:27.000 --> 00:05:36.000 And I have a psychiatrist that prescribes me ADHD myths. 00:05:36.000 --> 00:05:39.000 And I need a reorder actually. 00:05:39.000 --> 00:05:44.000 (Laughter) 00:05:44.000 --> 00:05:50.000 Hold on, I'm going to let you in on something that is so stressful. 00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:54.000 I have a multitude of meds that I get for all kinds of stuff 00:05:54.000 --> 00:05:56.000 because I'm just getting older. 00:05:56.000 --> 00:06:00.000 And most of them, I can just like click a button 00:06:00.000 --> 00:06:02.000 and it like reorders through the VA. 00:06:02.000 --> 00:06:06.000 The one med that I can't do that with is my ADHD meds, 00:06:06.000 --> 00:06:10.000 which I have to remember when I'm like seven days out from it 00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:15.000 to get onto my app and send a message to my doctor 00:06:15.000 --> 00:06:19.000 to prescribe these medication because it's a controlled med. 00:06:19.000 --> 00:06:24.000 And I'm like, the one med that I need to remember to do this 00:06:24.000 --> 00:06:28.000 is the one, it's -- (Laughter) 00:06:28.000 --> 00:06:32.000 Anyway, so all of that. 00:06:32.000 --> 00:06:38.000 But also take tick meds for PTSD. 00:06:38.000 --> 00:06:42.000 But I haven't been going to therapy for a little, 00:06:42.000 --> 00:06:45.000 probably a couple of years. 00:06:45.000 --> 00:06:47.000 Had felt like I'd gotten some coping mechanisms. 00:06:47.000 --> 00:06:50.000 We had done a lot of work and I felt good. 00:06:50.000 --> 00:06:55.000 And about a month ago, I was like, I need to call a therapist. 00:06:55.000 --> 00:06:58.000 My PTSD was just like, maxed. 00:06:58.000 --> 00:07:05.000 And the symptom of my PTSD is hyper-vigilance, hyper-awareness. 00:07:05.000 --> 00:07:10.000 So I will be in a place and think through a scenario, 00:07:10.000 --> 00:07:12.000 like worst case scenario. 00:07:12.000 --> 00:07:14.000 If something happens here, I have a plan of like, 00:07:14.000 --> 00:07:16.000 here's how I'm going to stop it or here's how I'm going to get people out of here. 00:07:16.000 --> 00:07:18.000 And it's everywhere. 00:07:18.000 --> 00:07:21.000 So it's just everywhere I go. 00:07:21.000 --> 00:07:24.000 And it was getting good. 00:07:24.000 --> 00:07:31.000 And then our country happened. 00:07:31.000 --> 00:07:37.000 And what's happening right now has just had me on high alert and hyper-vigilant. 00:07:37.000 --> 00:07:40.000 And I was like, I need to go back to therapy. 00:07:40.000 --> 00:07:45.000 So for about a month, I've been doing that because of the triggers that have been happening. 00:07:45.000 --> 00:07:52.000 So when I talked to my therapist, she was like, you, everyone is coming back right now. 00:07:52.000 --> 00:07:56.000 Because this is triggering. 00:07:56.000 --> 00:08:02.000 And if I'm honest, there's so much to unpack. 00:08:02.000 --> 00:08:09.000 I think what makes it really heavy for me right now is not just the violence, 00:08:09.000 --> 00:08:15.000 the silence that's just followed it. 00:08:15.000 --> 00:08:20.000 Silence from churches, from pastors. 00:08:20.000 --> 00:08:27.000 People who love to speak loudly about truth until it becomes inconvenient. 00:08:27.000 --> 00:08:33.000 And that silence kind of does something to you. 00:08:33.000 --> 00:08:41.000 It makes me feel crazy for caring, like I'm overreacting, which I know I'm not. 00:08:41.000 --> 00:08:50.000 Like my anger is unspiritual. 00:08:50.000 --> 00:08:53.000 So let me, I'll say this clearly. 00:08:53.000 --> 00:08:56.000 I think your anger makes sense. 00:08:56.000 --> 00:08:59.000 Your grief makes sense. 00:08:59.000 --> 00:09:02.000 And your frustration makes sense. 00:09:02.000 --> 00:09:07.000 That's the time we're in right now. 00:09:07.000 --> 00:09:16.000 And if you weren't feeling anything right now, that would actually be the concerning part to me. 00:09:16.000 --> 00:09:24.000 And I think that's, that I so badly just want to be, yeah, I just want to jump and call out. 00:09:24.000 --> 00:09:32.000 Like I'm so tired of hearing about pastors talking about revival when apparently it just means 00:09:32.000 --> 00:09:36.000 like people showing up and singing a bunch of songs and having big emotional moments. 00:09:36.000 --> 00:09:44.000 And meanwhile, like meanwhile we have a president's name who keeps showing up connected to pedophiles. 00:09:44.000 --> 00:09:51.000 And so many pastors are saying nothing. 00:09:51.000 --> 00:09:56.000 And I'm like, what, what are we doing church? 00:09:56.000 --> 00:10:02.000 There's, there's no moral clarity, there's no outrage, there's no courage, just silence. 00:10:02.000 --> 00:10:08.000 Or worse, like spiritual distraction, because I think that's what it is. 00:10:08.000 --> 00:10:14.000 And I don't know how else to say this. 00:10:14.000 --> 00:10:20.000 It just feels hypocritical as hell. 00:10:20.000 --> 00:10:30.000 Because if the church can sing loudly but can't speak clearly, when real people are being harmed, 00:10:30.000 --> 00:10:38.000 then something is deeply off. 00:10:38.000 --> 00:10:41.000 All right, I don't want to turn this into a rant. 00:10:41.000 --> 00:10:49.000 And so, so while we're here, I do want you to hear this at the arsenal. 00:10:49.000 --> 00:10:54.000 We're not going to pretend that this stuff isn't happening. 00:10:54.000 --> 00:11:00.000 We're not going to bypass pain with worship list. 00:11:00.000 --> 00:11:04.000 We're not going to call numbness peace. 00:11:04.000 --> 00:11:09.000 And we're not going to confuse silence with holiness. 00:11:09.000 --> 00:11:21.000 This is a place where you are allowed to see clearly and to still be held and still carry your feelings. 00:11:21.000 --> 00:11:24.000 Here's the, like, I guess tension I've been living with. 00:11:24.000 --> 00:11:30.000 On one hand, if we don't name what's happening, I feel like we lose integrity. 00:11:30.000 --> 00:11:36.000 On the other hand, if we stay in a constant state of outrage, we burn out. 00:11:36.000 --> 00:11:41.000 It doesn't lead to justice, it just leads to blindness. 00:11:41.000 --> 00:11:49.000 So the real question becomes, like, how do we stay awake without frying our nervous systems? 00:11:49.000 --> 00:11:54.000 How do we keep caring without being consumed? 00:11:54.000 --> 00:12:04.000 One of the things I've been asking my therapist is, all right, what part of this is like the bad part of PTSD? 00:12:04.000 --> 00:12:07.000 Like hyper vigilance, hyper awareness, planning for things. 00:12:07.000 --> 00:12:14.000 And what part of this is I have lived experience and I feel like I need to just at least have a plan. 00:12:14.000 --> 00:12:23.000 And her response is like, well, if you're thinking about this all the time, then you're probably living in the world of your PTSD. 00:12:23.000 --> 00:12:28.000 You're right to have some thoughts and some worries and some fears and make some plans. 00:12:28.000 --> 00:12:33.000 But if you're focused on that, then that's going to be a problem for you. 00:12:33.000 --> 00:12:34.000 We'll burn out. 00:12:34.000 --> 00:12:39.000 And then when we burn out, we can't help anyone. 00:12:39.000 --> 00:12:47.000 So trying to balance that has been life right now. 00:12:47.000 --> 00:12:56.000 There's a kind of strange story in the Gospels that as I was studying for this, I kept going back to. 00:12:56.000 --> 00:13:01.000 It's in Mark chapter 8. 00:13:01.000 --> 00:13:05.000 I'll just read it real quick and then we'll talk about it. 00:13:05.000 --> 00:13:12.000 Mark chapter 8 verse 22 says, "They came to Bethsaida and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. 00:13:12.000 --> 00:13:16.000 He took the blind man by the hand and let him outside the village. 00:13:16.000 --> 00:13:24.000 When he had spit on the man's eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, do you see anything? 00:13:24.000 --> 00:13:30.000 A couple of years ago, there was a pastor that like spit on a guy's eyes, like rubbed it in. 00:13:30.000 --> 00:13:34.000 There's a lot of controversy with it. 00:13:34.000 --> 00:13:36.000 But it got them a lot of attention. 00:13:36.000 --> 00:13:38.000 Hey, Mark, come here real quick. 00:13:38.000 --> 00:13:43.000 I'm just kidding. 00:13:43.000 --> 00:13:48.000 So when he had spit on the man's eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, do you see anything? 00:13:48.000 --> 00:13:52.000 He looked up and said, I see people. 00:13:52.000 --> 00:13:55.000 They look like trees walking around. 00:13:55.000 --> 00:13:59.000 Once more, Jesus put his hands on the man's eyes, then his eyes were opened. 00:13:59.000 --> 00:14:03.000 His sight was restored and he saw everything clearly. 00:14:03.000 --> 00:14:08.000 Jesus sent him home saying, don't even go into the village. 00:14:08.000 --> 00:14:17.000 So the interesting thing about the story is this is the only time in the Gospels where Jesus performs a healing that he has to go back and do it again. 00:14:17.000 --> 00:14:19.000 That it doesn't take the first time. 00:14:19.000 --> 00:14:27.000 This is the only time where it's like, okay, I kind of see and Jesus is like, let me fix that and he does it again. 00:14:27.000 --> 00:14:35.000 Which is interesting because I grew up in a charismatic Pentecostal church where healing was like one of those things where people would be like, did your back hurt? 00:14:35.000 --> 00:14:36.000 Always. 00:14:36.000 --> 00:14:37.000 Let me pray for you. 00:14:37.000 --> 00:14:38.000 Let me heal you. 00:14:38.000 --> 00:14:39.000 And they pray. 00:14:39.000 --> 00:14:40.000 How does it feel? 00:14:40.000 --> 00:14:41.000 It still hurts. 00:14:41.000 --> 00:14:42.000 Okay, let's pray again. 00:14:42.000 --> 00:14:46.000 And I'm like, no, it's okay. 00:14:46.000 --> 00:14:49.000 But this would be the verse that was quoted, the story that was quoted, right? 00:14:49.000 --> 00:14:57.000 Jesus did this, it's the one time that this happened. 00:14:57.000 --> 00:15:11.000 But as I come back to the Scripture, I think after years of relearning the new lens, this lens of love, seeing through the idea that life is focused. 00:15:11.000 --> 00:15:23.000 Life's focus should be so much more about loving people here and being kind and caring here on earth and being here for others, not about getting somewhere when I die. 00:15:23.000 --> 00:15:28.000 That we're literally supposed to be bringing heaven to earth. 00:15:28.000 --> 00:15:31.000 I feel like I saw this story through a new lens. 00:15:31.000 --> 00:15:37.000 So Jesus heals this blind man, he touches his eyes, it spits on him. 00:15:37.000 --> 00:15:45.000 And the man says, I see people, but they look like trees walking around. 00:15:45.000 --> 00:15:49.000 He can't see clearly yet. 00:15:49.000 --> 00:16:04.000 And I love that this story shows this aspect because to me, I think it tells the truth that seeing clearly is often a process. 00:16:04.000 --> 00:16:10.000 And partial sight isn't failure, it is part of the process. 00:16:10.000 --> 00:16:18.000 I think a lot of us right now are seeing people like trees walking around. 00:16:18.000 --> 00:16:33.000 Not because we're cruel, not because fear narrows our vision, or that anger simplifies or grief exhausts us like when the world feels unsafe, our bodies go into protection mode. 00:16:33.000 --> 00:16:42.000 And the first thing we lose isn't belief, it's perception. 00:16:42.000 --> 00:16:49.000 We stop seeing faces, we stop seeing threats, or we start seeing threats. 00:16:49.000 --> 00:17:00.000 Categories, characters, place people into boxes, they look like trees walking around. 00:17:00.000 --> 00:17:04.000 Just different types of trees that we've now labeled and put in. 00:17:04.000 --> 00:17:15.000 And it's not a moral failure, but I think it's the nervous system just under strain trying to help us figure things out. 00:17:15.000 --> 00:17:23.000 There's a pastor, theologian in Germany in the 30s and 40s. 00:17:23.000 --> 00:17:28.000 I don't know if you know what's going on in the 30s and 40s in Germany, but he was there. 00:17:28.000 --> 00:17:36.000 Same as Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and he's been really helpful for me lately. 00:17:36.000 --> 00:17:47.000 Bonhoeffer had this insight where he said, paraphrasing it here, that judging others actually makes us blind. 00:17:47.000 --> 00:17:56.000 While love does the opposite, the love illuminates, it allows us to see more clearly. 00:17:56.000 --> 00:18:00.000 Jesus actually talks about this in Matthew. 00:18:00.000 --> 00:18:06.000 He says, "Refuse to be a critic full of bias towards others, and judgment will not be passed on you. 00:18:06.000 --> 00:18:10.000 For you'll be judged by the same standard that you've used to judge others. 00:18:10.000 --> 00:18:13.000 The measurement you use on them will be used on you. 00:18:13.000 --> 00:18:19.000 Why would you focus on the flaw in someone else's life and yet fail to notice the glaring flaws of your own? 00:18:19.000 --> 00:18:24.000 This is in the Passion translation. 00:18:24.000 --> 00:18:27.000 This is the story of the speck in the log. 00:18:27.000 --> 00:18:33.000 Why are you focused on the log in your neighbor's eye, not the speck in yours, in the Passion? 00:18:33.000 --> 00:18:34.000 It's been translated this way. 00:18:34.000 --> 00:18:41.000 Why do you focus on the flaw in someone else's life and yet fail to notice the glaring flaws of your own? 00:18:41.000 --> 00:18:50.000 How could you say to your friend, "Let me show you where you're wrong when you're guilty of even more? 00:18:50.000 --> 00:18:53.000 You're being hypocritical and a hypocrite? 00:18:53.000 --> 00:18:58.000 First acknowledge your own blind spots and deal with them. 00:18:58.000 --> 00:19:04.000 And then you'll be capable of dealing with the blind spot of your friend." 00:19:04.000 --> 00:19:14.000 And in verse 6 he says, "Who would hang earrings on a dog's ear or throw pearls in front of wild pigs? 00:19:14.000 --> 00:19:22.000 They'll only trample on them under their feet and then turn around and tear you to pieces." 00:19:22.000 --> 00:19:27.000 Why would you throw pearls in front of swine, which Jesus said? 00:19:27.000 --> 00:19:29.000 They don't understand the value of that. 00:19:29.000 --> 00:19:31.000 They'll trample on them and it's not going to help. 00:19:31.000 --> 00:19:33.000 It's not like you're giving them a gift. 00:19:33.000 --> 00:19:34.000 They don't care. 00:19:34.000 --> 00:19:37.000 They'll trample on them and they're going to still attack you. 00:19:37.000 --> 00:19:39.000 So why would you do that? 00:19:39.000 --> 00:19:48.000 Well, here's, part of this is that metaphor, I think it works really well for us. 00:19:48.000 --> 00:19:59.000 Jesus says here that we should focus on ourselves before we start focusing on flaws of others. 00:19:59.000 --> 00:20:04.000 And the way that Bonhoeffer has kind of framed this, he said that when we live in judgment, 00:20:04.000 --> 00:20:11.000 we don't just blind ourselves to other people, we blind ourselves to our own capacity for harm. 00:20:11.000 --> 00:20:16.000 And to the grace that others are just as entitled to as we are. 00:20:16.000 --> 00:20:19.000 We blind ourselves to this. 00:20:19.000 --> 00:20:27.000 And it's kind of a sobering thought because it means blindness isn't always loud and hateful. 00:20:27.000 --> 00:20:29.000 Sometimes it looks moral. 00:20:29.000 --> 00:20:31.000 Sometimes it looks religious. 00:20:31.000 --> 00:20:35.000 Sometimes it hides behind certainty. 00:20:35.000 --> 00:20:40.000 And I think we're watching that kind of blindness play out in real time. 00:20:40.000 --> 00:20:43.000 When abuse of power is met with silence. 00:20:43.000 --> 00:20:48.000 When leaders talk loudly about revival but don't speak clearly about injustice. 00:20:48.000 --> 00:20:55.000 When churches can gather crowds but won't name harm. 00:20:55.000 --> 00:21:04.000 And for me, when I'm really, really angry with others, but I'm not working on that anger in me. 00:21:04.000 --> 00:21:11.000 And this isn't neutrality, it's vision loss. 00:21:11.000 --> 00:21:19.000 Bonhoeffer wasn't saying people stop thinking, he was saying that people stop seeing. 00:21:19.000 --> 00:21:25.000 What's interesting, Bonhoeffer actually had a name for this. 00:21:25.000 --> 00:21:31.000 When he was arrested, he was put in jail. 00:21:31.000 --> 00:21:36.000 So Bonhoeffer was a pastor during the rise of Hitler, Nazi Germany. 00:21:36.000 --> 00:21:43.000 And he spoke out against the Nazi occupation and the harm that they were doing, the Nazis taking over the churches. 00:21:43.000 --> 00:21:49.000 And he was put in prison, and while he was in prison he wrote these letters. 00:21:49.000 --> 00:21:54.000 He got put in prison because he was part of an assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler. 00:21:54.000 --> 00:21:57.000 And they caught him and he got put in prison. 00:21:57.000 --> 00:22:02.000 He was actually hung like two weeks or hanged. 00:22:02.000 --> 00:22:05.000 He was hanged. 00:22:05.000 --> 00:22:11.000 Two or three weeks before Hitler was actually taken out. 00:22:11.000 --> 00:22:15.000 And so he died just before. 00:22:15.000 --> 00:22:21.000 So from his letters from prison, he wrote, and it's how a book, 00:22:21.000 --> 00:22:27.000 about what was happening with people in his country. 00:22:27.000 --> 00:22:31.000 Where he said that people didn't just stop thinking, they stopped seeing. 00:22:31.000 --> 00:22:36.000 And he had a name for it, it was actually the theory of stupidity. 00:22:36.000 --> 00:22:41.000 And he got it stupidity but not in a way that we usually mean it. 00:22:41.000 --> 00:22:48.000 He wasn't talking about intelligence, he was, he meant like a kind of moral blindness 00:22:48.000 --> 00:22:55.000 that shows up when fear, power, or group pressure takes over. 00:22:55.000 --> 00:23:01.000 People don't stop thinking, they stop perceiving. 00:23:01.000 --> 00:23:06.000 They lose the ability to see themselves clearly, to see others as fully human and to recognize 00:23:06.000 --> 00:23:10.000 when harm is being done. 00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:20.000 Bonhoeffer actually says that you can't logic and reason someone out of stupidity. 00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:30.000 Because they are a captive to their fear and group pressure. 00:23:30.000 --> 00:23:35.000 You can't reason with them because it, and this is where Jesus says you can't throw pearls 00:23:35.000 --> 00:23:38.000 before swine because they'll just step on it. 00:23:38.000 --> 00:23:39.000 And then they'll tear you up. 00:23:39.000 --> 00:23:45.000 You've probably had these conversations on Facebook or Instagram or around your family's table. 00:23:45.000 --> 00:23:49.000 Like what are you talking about? You don't see this? 00:23:49.000 --> 00:23:53.000 No, they don't see clearly. 00:23:53.000 --> 00:23:59.000 And we all don't. There are things that we all don't see clearly. 00:23:59.000 --> 00:24:04.000 Jesus warns us in Matthew 7 about it, about judging others. 00:24:04.000 --> 00:24:09.000 That's where He says like, "Hey, focus on yourself." 00:24:09.000 --> 00:24:18.000 Because judgment doesn't clarify vision, it distorts it. 00:24:18.000 --> 00:24:25.000 And once we stop seeing clearly, it becomes very easy to reduce people, to symbols, to enemies, 00:24:25.000 --> 00:24:33.000 to trees walking around. 00:24:33.000 --> 00:24:37.000 And that doesn't mean that it's okay for people to hurt us and us just be like, 00:24:37.000 --> 00:24:40.000 "Oh, that's all right." No, no, no. 00:24:40.000 --> 00:24:46.000 But when you see clearly, you can still step back and look at what's behind it. 00:24:46.000 --> 00:24:54.000 And actually see the system that needs to be torn down, not the people. 00:24:54.000 --> 00:24:58.000 That are trapped within the system. 00:24:58.000 --> 00:25:04.000 This was Bonhoeffer's theory. 00:25:04.000 --> 00:25:09.000 So what do we do? 00:25:09.000 --> 00:25:14.000 Because I think we need help to get us to a point where we can see more clearly, 00:25:14.000 --> 00:25:20.000 to calm the nervous system, to bring things down to where we can start to look inwardly 00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:31.000 and look at how can we fix and speak to my body that is telling me that something's not okay. 00:25:31.000 --> 00:25:38.000 I think this is where this emotion of awe that we've been talking about becomes more than a feeling. 00:25:38.000 --> 00:25:43.000 Like awe becomes medicine. 00:25:43.000 --> 00:25:45.000 You guys have heard me talk about it. 00:25:45.000 --> 00:25:52.000 The studies that they're finding is when you experience awe, it brings down heart rate, 00:25:52.000 --> 00:25:53.000 cortisol levels. 00:25:53.000 --> 00:25:55.000 It helps with inflammation in your body. 00:25:55.000 --> 00:26:01.000 It is literally a healing emotion. 00:26:01.000 --> 00:26:05.000 And not because it numbs us to reality, 00:26:05.000 --> 00:26:14.000 but because it widens us to what we are connected to. 00:26:14.000 --> 00:26:16.000 Like I said, it lowers cortisol. 00:26:16.000 --> 00:26:18.000 It softens the body. 00:26:18.000 --> 00:26:23.000 It reminds the nervous system that you're not alone. 00:26:23.000 --> 00:26:25.000 You are not trapped. 00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:31.000 There is more than just a threat. 00:26:31.000 --> 00:26:43.000 Psychology's found that awe actually reduces defensiveness and increases compassion. 00:26:43.000 --> 00:26:50.000 Not by telling us to be nicer because that doesn't work. 00:26:50.000 --> 00:27:00.000 But by helping our bodies feel safe enough to stay open, to not isolate and close off. 00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:11.000 And that matters because you can't fight for justice if you're completely fried. 00:27:11.000 --> 00:27:18.000 You can't fight for justice if you think it's just you. 00:27:18.000 --> 00:27:26.000 But when we begin to experience awe, it brings us into a place again where it lowers the ego. 00:27:26.000 --> 00:27:30.000 Jonathan Hite says that it is the counterweight to ego. 00:27:30.000 --> 00:27:36.000 To experience awe brings us into a place where it shrinks us down to see others around us. 00:27:36.000 --> 00:27:40.000 That's why we become more compassionate and caring and generous. 00:27:40.000 --> 00:27:48.000 Like this is one of those things that when you think about the awe of the Lord as the beginning of wisdom, 00:27:48.000 --> 00:27:52.000 awe takes us to a place where we are compassionate and caring and generous and kind. 00:27:52.000 --> 00:27:56.000 And we see other people as part of us as like a connected humanity. 00:27:56.000 --> 00:27:59.000 It all begins to make sense. 00:27:59.000 --> 00:28:04.000 At least for me. 00:28:04.000 --> 00:28:09.000 Jesus says something really strange. 00:28:09.000 --> 00:28:14.000 When people start to ask him about seeing the kingdom, how do we see this? 00:28:14.000 --> 00:28:20.000 How do we experience the kingdom of God? 00:28:20.000 --> 00:28:28.000 He says you have to become like a child. 00:28:28.000 --> 00:28:34.000 Not childish, not naive, just open. 00:28:34.000 --> 00:28:39.000 What about children? Children haven't learned how to look away yet. 00:28:39.000 --> 00:28:42.000 They notice. They ask questions. 00:28:42.000 --> 00:28:45.000 They say present. 00:28:45.000 --> 00:28:48.000 I don't think Jesus was calling us to ignorance. 00:28:48.000 --> 00:28:54.000 I think He was calling us to unarmored perception. 00:28:54.000 --> 00:29:00.000 Bringing the walls down so we can see so that we are. 00:29:00.000 --> 00:29:10.000 We are so focused on what those around us, those things that we can be a part of where love is happening, 00:29:10.000 --> 00:29:15.000 compassion is happening. 00:29:15.000 --> 00:29:17.000 I think Jesus is saying just hate. 00:29:17.000 --> 00:29:23.000 If you want to experience the kingdom, and again this goes back to my new lens, right? 00:29:23.000 --> 00:29:26.000 The theory, the lens that we've all been talking about. 00:29:26.000 --> 00:29:32.000 If the kingdom of God, if heaven is supposed to be here now, then the life of a Christian, 00:29:32.000 --> 00:29:39.000 the life of a person who is in Christ, the life of a person who is living from love should be 00:29:39.000 --> 00:29:44.000 so focused on being compassionate and kind and loving and caring here. 00:29:44.000 --> 00:29:49.000 Now, that's what we look like. 00:29:49.000 --> 00:29:53.000 Because when you look at Jesus and the gospel, that's what He looked like. 00:29:53.000 --> 00:29:59.000 It was not about just being a perfect non-sining person. 00:29:59.000 --> 00:30:07.000 It was how kind and compassionate and generous and caring Jesus was. 00:30:07.000 --> 00:30:10.000 He wasn't calling us to ignorance. 00:30:10.000 --> 00:30:13.000 He was calling us to unarmored perception. 00:30:13.000 --> 00:30:16.000 Taking off the armor. 00:30:16.000 --> 00:30:20.000 Be like a child. 00:30:20.000 --> 00:30:26.000 So I'll say this kind of clearly and gently as I can. 00:30:26.000 --> 00:30:28.000 You don't need to shut down your anger. 00:30:28.000 --> 00:30:30.000 You don't need to shut down your grief. 00:30:30.000 --> 00:30:35.000 You don't need to pretend that things are okay. 00:30:35.000 --> 00:30:43.000 But you also don't need to live in a constant state of alert. 00:30:43.000 --> 00:30:51.000 It's just not good for us physically, biologically, emotionally, psychologically. 00:30:51.000 --> 00:30:53.000 It's not good for us. 00:30:53.000 --> 00:30:59.000 So awe gives us a way to rest without disengaging. 00:30:59.000 --> 00:31:03.000 To recharge so we can keep showing up. 00:31:03.000 --> 00:31:07.000 To breathe so that we can keep loving. 00:31:07.000 --> 00:31:19.000 To widen our vision so we don't turn people into trees walking around. 00:31:19.000 --> 00:31:22.000 You don't have to go out into the woods. 00:31:22.000 --> 00:31:28.000 I know like Daniel and Brittany talked about just experiencing like awe right where you're at. 00:31:28.000 --> 00:31:34.000 Like in your normal everyday life. 00:31:34.000 --> 00:31:40.000 With people around you, like I said, people being kind and compassionate to other human beings. 00:31:40.000 --> 00:31:42.000 It just feels good. 00:31:42.000 --> 00:31:50.000 Walking outside and actually like taking a breath and just looking and seeing the beauty of nature. 00:31:50.000 --> 00:31:58.000 Or one of the ways that I'm seeing it now is like you do this a lot of times when you go to other cities. 00:31:58.000 --> 00:32:03.000 Like when I travel to another city, I love to see all the cool like architecture and like all this stuff. 00:32:03.000 --> 00:32:06.000 And then the other day, I may have told you this already. 00:32:06.000 --> 00:32:12.000 But the other day, we're, Monty and I were driving through downtown. 00:32:12.000 --> 00:32:14.000 We were looking for something. I don't remember. 00:32:14.000 --> 00:32:18.000 But we were driving through downtown. I was like, I've never, what is that building? That is cool. 00:32:18.000 --> 00:32:25.000 Like, what is that? And it was like this, it's a federal bill like an old post office federal building. 00:32:25.000 --> 00:32:29.000 Did you guys know this exists downtown? 00:32:29.000 --> 00:32:35.000 Yeah. Right by the Alamo. Yeah. It's like, look at this. This is here. This is cool. 00:32:35.000 --> 00:32:39.000 And it was those moments of like, man, somebody built this thing and somebody put this together. 00:32:39.000 --> 00:32:43.000 Look how like, but it is, that's perception, right? 00:32:43.000 --> 00:32:51.000 I've driven past that building so many times, but I never saw it. 00:32:51.000 --> 00:32:58.000 It's pulling off the blinders and being able to be here and be perceptive to see things clearly around us. 00:32:58.000 --> 00:33:03.000 Now we turn that to people. We don't want to see people like trees walking around. 00:33:03.000 --> 00:33:10.000 How do we see people more clearly? We don't want to see people buy the labels that we put on them or they put on themselves. 00:33:10.000 --> 00:33:18.000 How do we see people as human beings that need love and compassion and kindness? 00:33:18.000 --> 00:33:25.000 That we can say this is fear that is driving this. 00:33:25.000 --> 00:33:33.000 This year, we said that we were calling ourselves into a year of awe. 00:33:33.000 --> 00:33:39.000 And not like as a vibe or like branding, although we should make some shirts. 00:33:39.000 --> 00:33:50.000 But, but as resistance, resistance to numbness, resistance to fear, resistance to blindness, 00:33:50.000 --> 00:34:00.000 a commitment to keep our eyes open and our hearts soft in a world that keeps trying to harden us. 00:34:00.000 --> 00:34:05.000 So maybe the invitation this week isn't to fix anything. 00:34:05.000 --> 00:34:20.000 It might just be to pause, to breathe, to notice what's tightening inside of you. 00:34:20.000 --> 00:34:27.000 And to let, ah, remind your body that you're still alive. 00:34:27.000 --> 00:34:38.000 You're still capable of love because justice needs people who can see clearly. 00:34:38.000 --> 00:34:48.000 And learning to see again, especially right now, might be one of the most faithful things that we can do. 00:34:48.000 --> 00:35:03.000 It's a process. Like Jesus said, judgment, it blinds us to see others clearly. 00:35:03.000 --> 00:35:09.000 And I, I got to be done. 00:35:09.000 --> 00:35:13.000 I'm going to acknowledge this right now because I think this is another thing. 00:35:13.000 --> 00:35:22.000 I know that for a lot of us, it feels like I'm saying, hey, you got to let them off the hook. 00:35:22.000 --> 00:35:30.000 Because a lot of people here that are hurting, that are like, feel like you are a target or attacked. 00:35:30.000 --> 00:35:37.000 And, and maybe it feels like, I don't say, hey, victim blaming. 00:35:37.000 --> 00:35:45.000 That's what I'm saying. You are right to feel anger, grief, worry. 00:35:45.000 --> 00:35:48.000 They're all real emotions. 00:35:48.000 --> 00:35:55.000 What I'm saying is, if we live in those and we operate from those only, 00:35:55.000 --> 00:35:59.000 it will not be healthy for you and for me. 00:35:59.000 --> 00:36:03.000 It, it will tear us up. 00:36:03.000 --> 00:36:08.000 So how do we step back, slow down, and experience awe? 00:36:08.000 --> 00:36:15.000 Let our bodies remember that we are live, that we are capable of love, that we have the ability to care for people, 00:36:15.000 --> 00:36:21.000 to not see them as trees or as labels, but to see them as human beings. 00:36:21.000 --> 00:36:29.000 Because when you make that shift in your mind, a lot of times anger will turn to compassion. 00:36:29.000 --> 00:36:33.000 Like sad, like I'm so sad for you. 00:36:33.000 --> 00:36:38.000 Like you are living in this place where you think that this is how you have to live. 00:36:38.000 --> 00:36:44.000 The fear is driving you. 00:36:44.000 --> 00:36:52.000 The only way for us to fight for justice is for us to see clearly. 00:36:52.000 --> 00:37:00.000 To see humans clearly. So this week, slow down, take a breath, 00:37:00.000 --> 00:37:06.000 remind your body that you are alive, and find places where you can experience awe, 00:37:06.000 --> 00:37:10.000 even if it's just walking outside and feeling the breeze on your face. 00:37:10.000 --> 00:37:16.000 And remembering that you are part of this world. 00:37:16.000 --> 00:37:25.000 There's a lot of work to do, which just means there's a lot of love to give. 00:37:25.000 --> 00:37:30.000 So go love well, because it's who we're made to be. 00:37:30.000 --> 00:37:33.000 I love you guys. We'll see you next week.