Perspectives: Awareness as Food for Spiritual Growth

Join us on November 9th, 16th, and 23rd at 11:30AM after worship in the Sanctuary for our next Perspectives series led by the Rev. Dale Trunk! Sometimes we are given the attitude that the life of faith is otherworldly - that our earthly context and our active human minds are distractions. This attitude may stem from approaching our Christian faith as our ticket out of here to escape to our “true home” in heaven. During this month’s Perspectives we will explore another approach to faith, prayer, and action. How about becoming more aware of ourselves as part of God’s creation, and seeing our earthly context as our present home that God calls us to engage and care for? How about embracing the elements of Creation as revelations along our path with and into God? We will explore the thoughts of three different teachers of awareness as food for metanoia prayer-engaging imagination-exploring reality-being of service.

1) John Muir Laws is a local teacher of nature journaling. He offers a simple process of stimulating awareness: “I notice – I wonder – It reminds me of.”

2) Simone Weil was a French philosopher known for her profound spirituality and commitment to social justice. She saw attention as a gateway to the divine. She wrote: “attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.” It is not a transaction. It is not a loan. It is pure gift.

3) Brother Lawrence is known for his simple approach to prayer and service: “The Practice of the Presence of God.” He lived through the horrors of fighting in the Thirty Years War and later became a Carmelite Friar, spending years as a cook and sandal maker. At the age of 16, he saw a leafless tree in a battlefield. Knowing that the tree would be budding forth in a few months, he saw it as a symbol of God's love able to transform human hearts.