Embracing Awe: The Journey of Character and Beauty

I was talking to a friend yesterday who was telling me about somebody who is wanting to grow in character that's what that's the journey we're on together and he had somebody working on a project for him and that person had made a mistake and he was disappointed his initial response was to want to react in anger and be punitive towards this other person out of his emotions and then he had the thought I I want to have a good character I would rather have with God's help a good character than a good outcome than to get my own way and it caused him to respond to this person in a completely different way than he would have otherwise and when I heard that story I felt wow that's the kind of person I want to be that's the kind of Journey that I want to be on because I know I know I know the main thing God will get out of my life is the person I become and that's primarily the character that I form with God's help [00:55:58]

Appreciation of beauty and Excellence refers to the ability to find recognize take pleasure in the existence of goodness in the physical and social worlds a person high on this strength frequently feels on related emotions including admiration Wonder elevation wow for example while walking in the woods or in a city or reading novels or newspapers while learning about people's lives or watching sports or movies a person low on the strength goes about daily life as if wearing blinders you ever do that wearing blinders to that which is beautiful and moving taking little pleasure in the scenes that pass by or in the strengths talents virtues and accomplishments of others we presume that people whose minds and hearts are open to beauty and Excellence find more joy in daily life and more meaning in their own lives and more ways to connect deeply with others [03:11:36]

I want to give you a little assessment device these are six items and they're from a researcher named shiona you can if you want to give a response from one to seven uh strongly I strongly agree or strongly disagree for each one of them number one I often feel awe number two I see beauty all around me even in this little net that's trying to get into my eye number three I feel Wonder almost every day very striking there's a um uh a way of looking at people's sense of self and it involves a drawing of yourself with the sun in that picture and when people have experienced awe and wonder they tend to draw a small self they have a little self um there's something about the experience of awe and wonder that releases me from a sense of self-preoccupation [04:29:04]

It's a beautiful passage in the Bible in the third chapter of Ecclesiastes there's a time for every season under Heaven There is a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing there is a time to laugh there's a time to weep there's a time to sow there's a time to reap and then in verse 11 this wonderful statement about God he has made all things beautiful in their times God is a God who loves beauty Beauty Dallas Willard says is goodness made manifest to the senses [05:38:80]

A researcher Jonathan height says that our sense of law often has two results one of them is we experience a sense of vastness in the object that produces awe in US and of course God is supremely that God is eternal God Has No Limit God is present everywhere there is nothing as vast as God but then the other thing that we experience when we have a sense of God is is the challenge of accommodating ourselves to this we'll have this sense when we experience awe or wonder in a tremendous sight or when we're looking at something of great skill it blows my mind and of course Jesus's basic message brings both of these things the kingdom of God has come near now that is the Eternal uh Kingdom that is vast on a scale like nothing else therefore repent accommodate yourself live in alignment with this Kingdom [06:22:80]

I think about when Moses saw the burning bush in Exodus and his response was I must turn aside and consider this thing and often I'm too busy to turn aside and I do not reflect on the burning bush and then in addition to Nature and addition to Art consider stories of moral goodness I think about a friend of mine who is often quite busy in his work but said what he loves doing most of all is when he goes to the prison and teaches men who are there because they are so hungry to learn and thinking about somebody who has many other things to do that could feed his ego or build his resume but what he loves is to go to a prison and to be with people who are really hungry to learn and devote himself to helping them is an inspirational thing to me [09:46:20]

Look at the world that God has made experience the beauty that is present in art and music and movies in stories and consider the moral Beauty the goodness of people who are around you wow change starts today [10:47:34]

God is a God who loves beauty Beauty Dallas Willard says is goodness made manifest to the senses change is coming today you're going to change for better or worse so let's make it better and the word for today is wow you might say it right now wow and lamott wrote a book about three little prayers I think the words were thanks that's a good prayer to pray and help and God knows I pray that one a lot but the other word is wow we're looking at today at what is sometimes called uh appreciation of beauty and Excellence a sense of wonder a sense of awe to say wow [00:00:29]

His favorite activity was to stroll Outdoors by himself admiring trees flowers the sky the shifting light of day listening to birds and crickets other natural sounds it was evident that these things gave him a pleasure far beyond what they give to Ordinary People until I knew the man it had not occurred to me that anyone could derive so much absolute happiness from these things as he did perhaps indeed no man ever lived who likes so many things and dislikes so few as Walt Whitman all natural objects seem to have a charm for him all sights and sounds seem to please him he appeared to like and I believe he did like all the men and women and children that he saw [02:15:13]

And of course Jesus in his day experienced the beauty of Nature and would often teach from it from the beauty of the Lilies of the Field and no human attempts at dress or anything else can come close to just the way that God dresses up a single flower in the field and if he treats the flowers that way what about you um in Psalm 27 verse 4 David has a remarkable request request he says one thing I have asked the Lord this only do I seek that I may dwell in your house all the days of my life and gaze upon the beauty of the Lord I never deeply thought before not just to gaze upon God is beauty God is goodness and he reveals himself to us in our experiences of awe and wonder that are available to you today as long as you just don't go through life with blinders on gotta get this task done mostly I'm preoccupied with me no no no today be filled with a sense of wonder and awe at the vastness at the Eternal stretch of life and God that lies before us [07:47:18]

Now you might want to do that by taking a walk in nature and just contemplating for a little while a tree or a leaf or sun and Shadow on the Earth and what a remarkable sense of beauty that that creates or you might want to experience art you might want to look at a painting or listen to a piece of music and be lost in Wonder at the beauty of it we naturally crave Beauty and we cannot get enough of it often we don't experience Wonder because we're just too busy and preoccupied [09:08:64]