Awakening in action

The Resources

The last piece of the puzzle about the times we are living in is how we participate in the work of crossing the bridge from the old form, model, or paradigm and into the one which is taking shape, being born, around us (in us/through us).

Revivals tend to result in personal, individual conversion and growth in church membership. Revivals happen in the church.

When awakening happens there is a cultural reorganisation, a societal shift that is transformative and therefore what emerges is fundamentally different from what has gone before. There is a broadening of boundaries, a re-evaluation of categories, an increased inclusion – the unfulfilled longings and aspirations of previous generations are embodied as social and religious imagination expands in ways that were unthinkable before.

Awakening opens the heart and mind toward greater practices of love and justice. Diana quotes herself:

In Christianity After Religion, I wrote: “Every spiritual awakening seeks to make visible, even if only in some incomplete way, God’s dream for creation.”…the narrative continues, “I have described the end of an old religious world and invited you to see the contours of the new one that is being born all around us. You may wish to mourn the loss of what was, but there is no need to fear what will be, for the future is here only in part, and there is much work to be done” (p. 267-268).

That was ten years ago, give or take, and considering what has happened over the last decade those words have a deeply prophetic resonance. Yes. The future is coming to us like spring – some delicious warm days, some blasting cold winds, some wet, wet, wet, some grey blah, some four seasons in one day kind of days. But always the returning of the sun, lengthening the day and promising summer.

So we’re talking in the public spaces about purity culture, about faith deconstruction, about colonialism and racism and climate crisis and gender politics and extractive economics – we’re having conversations about things that were denied, or were ‘givens’, or unconscious and therefore unquestionable.

This is the work – or at least, this is part of the work. It takes effort to educate yourself, especially in areas where you have been complicit in or benefitted from inequality. It takes effort to choose to add more perspectives into your own personal narrative as you listen to stories of people you have not listened to in the past.

Awakening in action and the 3 Bs

Pause to reflect

Belonging – If belonging is shifting from membership toward relationship, then what does it really mean in practical terms to belong to the earth and to nature, to your own self, and to one another? Which one of those relational aspects feels most vital to you, and which seems awkward?

Who’s in your circle of belonging? What’s your sense of how well that reflects what you most want in terms of belonging?

Behaving – This is where practices put flesh on the bones of faith. So do you have practices that deepen your sense of belonging in each of those relationships? Do you have practices that are slowly moving you towards a transformation of those relationships? Diana mentions gratitude as a transformational practice…how does that land for you? What else do you want to add? Or, what would you like to try and what support might you need?

Believing – what does your living say about how you believe? How have you experienced God through the different seasons of your life? Can you tell a story of God, the world, and yourself, or does your story get stuck somewhere? How has this story been revised over the years? How has belief changed for you?

This is the other part of the work…how are you consciously shifting your personal belonging, behaving and believing paradigm? What conversations are you listening in on, contributing to or avoiding? What practices are you letting go of because they do not serve your changing perceptions of the 3Bs? What new practices are coming to the fore, or new ways of approaching old practices?

The Practices

Sabbath

Here’s an ancient practice that I think is part of the awakening movement. Often seen through a lens of ‘thou shalt not’, sabbath keeping can seem like a bunch of what you can’t do rather than a rest from what you have to do. What if sabbath is an opportunity to practice being….A day for restoration through things that nurture the whole person that you are. Belonging comfortably to yourself probably means you need to practice being with yourself. Belonging to nature may mean practicing peaceably being in creation. At heart, sabbath is a way of remembering that you are free. You are not a slave to life’s demands.

Sabbath is a time to practice letting go of efforting and enjoy the ride.

Friend

Belonging is about relationships and relationships require attention and action. How attentive are you to your friendships? How intentional in connecting, sharing and listening? Make a ‘to do’ list for attending to your friendships, and follow up. Share something more of yourself, or, if you are usually the talker, ask more questions and practice listening. Be more intentionally with others to deepen and nurture connection.

Blessing

This is a way of behaving that opens you to gratitude and connection and so much more. Barbara Brown Taylor suggests blessing anything – trees, birds, sky. Begin by seeing it, truly for itself and as it is. Speak a blessing out loud, even if other people are around. Or, looking with the eye of the heart, pronounce a silent blessing and pay attention to what happens in the air between you and the other – flower, stone, dog, person.