A Divine Awakening, Part 3

A Divine Awakening, Part 3

Our awareness is everything; our waking up is everything. We need to move from the superficial or “outer self” to the true self or “inner self.”[1]

An important aspect to waking up is distinguishing between a problem and a mystery, which is related to understanding what is inside or outside of our being. We are trained to deal with problems. When we are hungry, we eat. When we are thirsty, we drink. When we are cold, we put on a jacket. We identify the source of the problem so it can be addressed, adjusted, fixed, or otherwise disposed of, at least temporarily.  Learning what to do when face-to-face with a mystery is not a subject our educational systems address well, if at all. And for good reason. Problems usually have solutions, once analyzed and understood properly. The moment we try to solve a mystery, however, a whole lot of problems spin off that draw our conscious attention away from the mystery we were attempting to engage in the first place. Treating mysteries as problems will distract our attention away from them. Hunger, thirst, homelessness, and oppression are common problems that can be solved or at least lessened in their intensity. Life, death, love, and joy are timeless mysteries to be engaged and explored, not for answers or solutions but because the experience of engagement enhances our existence. If we find a mystery we can solve, it isn’t a mystery – it’s a problem.

Contemplative author James Finley says, “A problem is an inquiry…which the self apprehends in an exterior way…A mystery, on the other hand, is a question which…cannot be regarded as detached from the self.”[2] A problem is out there; a mystery is in here. Mysteries and problems are different conundrums requiring  different approaches on our part. One result of having a divine awakening is a shift in our focus away from attending to all but the most relevant problems in order to create space for exploring the innermost mysteries of our existence. Our problems are temporal and limited in nature; life’s mysteries are infinite and eternal. If we allow ourselves to become consumed with problem-solving, we will never find time to engage with mystery. Problems are seductive because as we solve them we feel useful and productive. Mysteries open onto wider and wider vistas of uncertainty. They make us feel dumb if we try to solve them the way we solve problems. So why engage with mystery at all? For one, God is mystery. Secondly, our problems end with our earthly lives, but mystery endures. Finally, at some point in life, we may realize we are caught in a never-ending cycle of problem-solving that does nothing but create new problems. And that realization is the beginning of a divine awakening.

A divine awakening is a gateway into a life larger, more beautiful, and more mysterious than any we could otherwise imagine. Our educational system, at least in the West, operates as if the intellect is our most powerful resource for living a better life. But intellect is of little help with mystery. Even our churches have largely devolved into centers of intellectual learning about God instead of guiding us toward holistic experiences of God. A divine awakening reveals that our intellect is actually the most limited and limiting of our abilities to know and learn. We have powers of sight that perceive beyond the reach of our physical eyes. We have hearing capabilities outside of the auditory spectrum. And we have emotions and intuitions that cue us to action well before our intellect realizes anything is amiss. In recent centuries we have wrongly considered intellectual knowing as the apex of wisdom when it is actually the sleeping pill that keeps our broader senses of knowing in a deep slumber.

As we consider crucifying Christianityand some of our unconsciously-accepted religious beliefs, we remember that Jesus’ existence did not end with his crucifixion. He was resurrected. He began again. He entered a new state of being. So crucifying Christianity does not mean killing off the Christian church and its belief systems. It means restarting it, rebirthing it, allowing it to rise from its ashes and rebuilding from its roots of the life and teachings of Jesus the Christ. And just as the risen Christ was mostly unrecognizable to his closest pre-crucifixion followers, so will the reborn church and its belief systems and practices appear foreign to many when compared to Christian churches today. The transformation, however, begins within us.

While we cannot change the external events of our past, we can change our internal responses and the on-going impacts of those events as we turn our conscious attention away from our “outer self” and towards our “inner self.” It is all part of a divine awakening.

This is the 25^th in a series titled Crucifying Christianity, Resurrecting the Way.Life Notes are my explorations into mysteries that interest me. They are invitations for readers to explore more deeply into life’s mysteries. Engage with me or explore contemplative spiritual direction at ghildenbrand@outlook.com.

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[1] Matthew Fox, Passion for Creation, Breakthrough, 1995, pp. 1-3.

[2] James Finley, teaching about Gabriel Marsel, Turning to the Mystics podcast , March 24, 2025.