Awe Is the Counterweight: Same Storm, Different Lens | Passed By | Chad Belew

of you, you probably know this, but just a history, there was a verse in Proverbs

that was brought up to me when I grew up in the church, and who else grew up in

the church? You might grow up like, okay, some of them, man, raise your hand if you

didn't grow up and and like, all right, they're like, they're like trauma, what's

that? Different trauma, different trauma, we all got our own trauma. So I kind of got

into a point where I was like, I don't understand why, like why is fear so

prominent in teaching, in our faith, and then seeing kind of how our world is

operating right now, and watching as churches and pastors were, I just, I saw

a lot of fear, right? And it didn't make sense to me, like, why are we so

afraid? Why is fear such, it's not a good motivator, we know it's not, and so when

we started talking about that, you guys know this, but I did a video, somebody

brought up a verse, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, I did, that

doesn't make sense to me, how does fear lead you to wisdom? Didn't make sense, so

deep dive on the word for fear, I'm not gonna tell you what it is, because I've

got a question for you later, and found that ah, like, reverent ah was

actually the word there, which is a different response than fear, and it's a

perspective shift is really what it is, I'm gonna read you a passage real

quick in Mark 4, you guys have heard this story I'm sure, so later that day,

after it grew dark, Jesus said to His disciples, let's cross over to the other

side of the lake, after they had sent the crowd away, they shoved off from shore

with Him, as He had been teaching from the boat, and there were other boats that

sailed with them, suddenly, as they were crossing the lake a ferocious

tempest a rose, what's a tempest? It's ferocious, tempest a rose with violent winds

and waves that were crashing into the boat until it was all but swamped, but

Jesus was calmly sleeping in the stern, resting on a cushion, so they shook Him

awake saying, "Teacher, don't you even care that we are all about to die, fully

awake, He rebuked the storm and shouted to the sea," which I think is a miracle in

itself, like they woke Him up and it says He was fully awake, like okay Jesus, showing

off, fully awake, He rebuked the storm and shouted to the sea, "Hush, calm down,"

like He's talking to these kids, "all at once the winds stopped howling and the

water became perfectly calm, then He turned to His disciples and said to them,

"Why are you so afraid? Haven't you learned to trust yet?" But they were

overwhelmed with fear and awe and said to one another, "Who is this man who has such

authority that even the wind and the waves obey Him?" Jesus looked at him and

He said, "Why are you so afraid? Haven't you learned to trust yet?"

It feels to me like a lot of us are living in a Mark 4 moment.

Jesus and His disciples, they're crossing the Sea of Galilee, the storm is raging

and Jesus is asleep and the disciples are like, "Teacher, don't you care that

we're all about to die? Like we're about to drown and you are sleeping." And I think

that question feels familiar. Like, don't you care what's happening in our world?

Don't you care what's happening in our country? Don't you care about the

division, about the uncertainty? Don't you care about what might be coming next?

And Jesus was sleeping. Now growing up I was told in moments like this that you

just got to trust Jesus. You've got to have faith, you've got to trust Jesus.

He knows what's coming next. He's got it. He's got ahead of us. You've got to

trust Jesus, which sounds good. In His proper, like spiritually I would say,

yes, makes sense. But how? Like, it seems so abstract to me. What do you mean?

Like, I don't understand how this works. Like grip my teeth and it's a

spiritual grit your teeth, pretending not to feel fear. It sounded like

suppressing like anxiety and worrying to me. That's not true. I didn't know what it

sounded like then. Now I look back and it's like no, we were just suppressing

anxiety and fear and be like, I trust Jesus with all of it. But if you look

closely at this story, the difference in that in that boat was not their

position. They were in the same storm, same waves, same uncertainty, same lack

of control. The difference wasn't the experience it was perspective. The

disciples through fear were looking for certainty. They wanted the storm gone.

They wanted control restored and they wanted predictability back. Jesus was

just perceiving the moment differently. He wasn't denying the storm. He wasn't

interpreting it through fear. He lived rooted in this reverent awe. And I think

in the moment, Jesus calms the storm, I think there was a teaching moment there

for his disciples. But I think the storm was just as much the teaching moment for

them. And Jesus sleeping during the storm was a teaching moment for them. He was

showing them what it looks like to not live in fear. Maybe to live in this

place called awe. That all widens, if you look through a camera, you're like

focused on something, awe would be like zooming out, widens the frame. Fear narrows

it. It zooms right in on the thing that I'm afraid of. Fear says something bad is

happening and I must control it. Or awe says something bigger is happening and I'm

held within it. It's just a different perspective. The disciples were in fear

of the storm. Jesus was in awe of the Father and an understanding of what the

love looked like. They were in the same boat, different lens, and the lens

determined their nervous system and the response in the moment. One produced

panic, the other produced peace. So maybe trusting Jesus isn't this abstract idea.

It's not forcing a belief, it's just shifting perspective. What we trust is what

grows when this idea and this experience, this understanding of awe deepens. So here's

what this gets interactive. We've been talking about this for six, eight months,

something like that forever. Everybody take out your phones. I want you to take a

selfie. I'm just kidding. It's not a test but I just want to check to see if I've

been making sense over the past few months. Scan the QR code on the back of

the seats. If you're in the front seat, just reach over. Scan the QR code. Let's

see if this works. There should be a button there that says awe. Some questions. See

what I did there? These dad jokes. While you're getting that pulled up, I took

Jackson the other day to go get his eyes checked. The eye doctor asked him a question.

He said, what is a pirate's favorite letter? See, you would think it's "R" but it's the

"C" matey. I was like, that's amazing. He's like, dad's get it. You're going to use

that one, aren't you? See, it be the "C" matey. You knew it already. All right, so everybody

there? Now, start answering some questions. Huh? It's a quiz. There's a quote that I've

said quite a bit. "Ah" is the counterweight to put in the word. Put in any word. You can

come up with your own word. "Ah" is the counterweight.

It's like the counter of, it's the, yeah. Like think of a, to balance something, you put

a counterweight on, that like levels it, brings it so. "Ah" is the counterweight. Give you a

lot of questions there. Yeah, see him. All right. No cheating. Who's the hunchcake?

"Ah" is the counterweight. The next one was the "Ah" is the experience of blank and the

need for blank. That one's multiple choice. I'll give you multiple choice on that one.

All right. All right. Starting to see him now. Let's see.

Is everybody done? All right. I'll give you a few more minutes.

All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right.

All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right.

[ Silence ]

[ Silence ]

Alright. Let's see how you did.

[ Silence ]

Ah, is the counterweight two?

Do we know?

How do I see? I won't show you the correct answer yet.

How do I see it? Show it.

Switch to host mode.

Alright. Is the counterweight two ego? Is the...

Fear? Is a good one?

Well, it's really whatever.

It's whatever. Like, it is a counterweight two.

The quote is ego, but fear was one.

Alright. We'll go to the next one.

Ah, is the experience of blank and the need for blank?

Is it A, B, or C, or D?

C?

Is that the correct answer?

B, vastness and accommodation.

Ah, is the experience of vastness.

So, we've explained this where, like, you experience something so big that it makes you feel small, but in a good way.

And you need to accommodate for what you just experienced.

Your mind can't comprehend it. You have to accommodate for what you just experienced.

So, vastness and accommodation. Sorry. I know. This feels like school, right?

Sorry, guys. You guys are... Look. Look.

If I got to be back in school, you got to be back in school.

Who knows the Hebrew word?

You all do? Well, I know you do. What is it?

Yerah. Yerah.

Yerah. Okay. Next one.

According to research, ah, most strongly increases self-importance... Oh, there you go.

It's a material. Purpose. Purpose. It... You experience ah, it strongly increases experience.

Purpose. Who got all of them right?

Nobody. Man, I am terrible at this. Who got three right?

Okay. All right. Two. One.

Oh, there's one more. Sorry. Here, let's see. My fault.

Last one. When I experience ah, I become more...

Oh, there's the button I was looking for.

When I experience ah, I become more... You got grateful, peaceful, aware, at peace, calm, empathetic...

Quiet, positive. I like these. This is good.

Oh, okay. We got another one. People add in stuff.

Loving and lightened. Awesome, duh. Yes.

Connected to the love of God. Peace-filled and good perspective.

I see what you did there. Others focused, connected, amazed, aware and peaceful.

Do you see psychological studies show that this is the truth. This is what happens.

You become these things. So, again, we go back to looking at how should we be doing this thing as a faith community who follows Jesus?

How do we get to wisdom? Is it through fear?

Or is it through the perspective of yerah that is ah?

Which takes us into a place where we are more loving, more kind, more caring, more generous.

It almost sounds like it makes us more like Jesus. So...

Here's what we're going to do now.

I can see my screen. Uh-oh. We can stop sharing my screen.

How many people put Happy National Cat Day down for the experience? Oh, alright.

Alright. So, phone's down for now. Close your eyes. If you feel comfortable.

Think of a recent moment where you were less reactive than you used to be.

Maybe that's not yours. Were you a more patient? Were you a more grounded?

Maybe more compassionate? And the question I have for you was, was that perfection, which in teaching of fear, the goal was perfection.

But was that perfection, were you becoming perfect? Or was that what we like to call fruit? You experienced something and fruit is produced through you.

Were you more patient? More grounded? More compassionate? Less reactive than you used to be.

Alright, now open your eyes. Think about that.

A group activity, find two or three people around you, and finish this sentence.

And you're going to discuss it for a couple of minutes. Alright, we're diving into this thing a little bit.

Lately, ah, has helped me blank. Lately, ah, has helped me, what? Two or three people come and talk, speak.

Then you'll get some music.

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.

Lately, ah, ah, ah, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.

Lately, ah, ah, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.

Lately, ah, ah, ah, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.

Lately, ah, ah, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.

Lately, ah, ah, ah, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.

Lately, ah, ah, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.

[BLANK_AUDIO]

[BLANK_AUDIO]

All right, all right, let's bring it back, bring back.

Just put a pen in it, you can talk about it in a couple minutes when I'm done.

[LAUGH]

Now, a couple more things, if you set up the survey,

pull your phone back out and answer the assessment.

Since we began exploring, I feel less driven by fear and more shaped by peace.

Answer this honestly, yes or no, has it really just been kind of an abstract idea?

Do you feel like it has made any impact in life and relationships?

[BLANK_AUDIO]

All right.

[BLANK_AUDIO]

[BLANK_AUDIO]

You wish what?

[BLANK_AUDIO]

I know, we should, proper research would have started with a pre, yeah.

Look, I hadn't done my research in stats class yet, so.

[BLANK_AUDIO]

Somebody else has, you could have helped me, you could have told me.

[LAUGH]

We're gonna have to do one, we'll do a hypothesis, this will be our sample group.

Yeah, okay.

[BLANK_AUDIO]

So, this is good, I like this.

Since we began exploring awe, I feel less driven by fear and more shaped by peace.

We are trending in a good direction, which is good.

That's the hope, right?

That's the fruit of this.

Should be that you are experiencing peace in your life.

That you are experiencing a transformation and relationship and

how you see people, there's a two percent over there.

That fear, Robert's still working on it, but.

You knew, you knew what I was gonna say.

[LAUGH]

>> [INAUDIBLE]

>> [LAUGH]

>> We have said, well, it's almost four years now, Robert is on Robert's road to

righteousness and we're, it's a long journey.

[LAUGH]

There's also a Q&A section on there.

If you wanna ask a question, you can do that.

We're not gonna go into them right now, but

it'll be something that we can talk about as we go through all of this.

But, it's one of those things where.

[BLANK_AUDIO]

This was never just this exciting thing about like,

psychologically, I learned this, it was for me this light bulb moment of,

hey, this actually works in the way that I believe Jesus did life.

Where, when we experience these, these things,

these moments of all, it actually brings us into a place where we are more

connected and more willing to understand what it looks like to not just be focused

on me, if awe is the counterweight to ego, then it begins to suppress ego.

Where I am now more connected, more focused on others.

Which seems to be what the gospel calls us to.

I'll look at questions real quick, but, man, there's a lot now.

How do we explain to someone, how do we explain awe to someone who's always

living and seeing things through fear?

I think there's, there's a couple different things that we've talked about

throughout this series, that there's the big moments.

The moments that you stand and you overlook the Grand Canyon and

you are just mind blown, that this big hole exists, right?

Just the beauty of it, or you drive through Northern California or

Oregon into the trees and you see these matte, like just mind blowing.

And it makes you realize that you're on this, there's some,

this is much bigger than just me, there's something happening here.

And then there's the moments of small moments where you meet someone.

How many times do we meet someone, we see them, we know exactly who they are.

And then they do something and you're like, oh, that is not what I expected from you.

Something kind, something in you, I have to accommodate what I just experienced.

A few years back, 2017, right around the time we started the arsenal,

I was at a coffee shop and I'd gone in.

At that point, I had a beard that looked like Duncan's.

Some of you guys remember that.

Beard looked like, you know, big, bushy beard, army veteran.

And I walked into this coffee shop and got a coffee and there was a couple

of pastors and some of their friends sitting and have some coffee.

And they were having a pretty heated conversation.

Not even heated, they were all very agreeable to each other.

It was kind of, it was, it was getting loud.

What they were talking about was at that point, Colin Kaepernick in the NFL

had taken a knee during the National Anthem as a protest to violence

and inequality for African Americans in the US.

And this pastor looks at me and he goes, Chad, you're going to agree with us.

Come here, you're going to have a good perspective.

You're a veteran.

And I looked at him and I was like, because I heard the conversation.

And I was like, I don't think I'm going to agree with what you think I am.

And he was like, really?

You're a veteran.

Like, you're an offended.

And I looked at him and I said, man, I think this is what freedom looks like.

And so for me, I feel like I'm not offended.

I think the moment there is to step back and say, why does he feel like he needs to do this?

He's offended because there's some thing that has been told to us that is super important,

but there's a human being trying to say something about harm.

And so the question there is not, well, how do we fix this?

He's offending me.

No, it's, well, why does he feel like he needs to do this?

That's that moment of stepping back.

I don't know the experience of Colin Kaepernick.

I don't know the experience of being a black person in our country.

So I have to step back and accommodate and listen and be curious.

And that's what all does.

It's the step back.

It's the zoom out.

You may not, you may not still agree.

But at least you zoomed out.

And now you know that there are people that have a different opinion about things than

you and they're not terrible human beings.

And I think we need that right now more than anything to zoom out, step back.

A lot of times, ways that we treat each other as human beings,

especially negative ways that we treat each other, is all driven out of some form of fear.

So I have to step back and accommodate and say, well, what are they afraid of?

And then begin to ask and wonder.

Uncertainty is a good place to live.

Wonder is the outcome of experiencing awe.

You live in this place of wonder.

I think this drives us into a moment where we are more loving, more kind, more caring, less offended.

It makes me in Galatians 3, I think it's the passion translation.

Paul's talking about what it looks like to experience being a person who's living in Christ.

What does a new creation look like?

And one of the things he says in there is to be unoffendable in your patience with others.

And this is the only way we can do that.

We are connected. If someone sings something in Spanish, just step back.

If you don't understand, it's going to be okay.

Just enjoy it.

Right?

I'm going to look at these questions and I'll get back to them.

I'm just going to read a passage and we're done.

If fear is the root of our life, then the fruit will look like fear.

And if awe is the root, then I believe the fruit will look like Jesus.

And I love how the passion translation translates Galatians 5 and the list of the fruit of the spirit.

So if we live in this place, we're rooted in this experience of awe, we're looking for it.

We are trying to find new things to give us wonder.

Our relationships begin to look like this.

But the fruit produced by the Holy Spirit within you is divine love in all its varied expressions.

It's the way that overflows, the peace that subdues, patience that endures, kindness in action.

A life full of virtue, faith that prevails, gentleness of heart, and strength of spirit.

Because I'm going to say never set the law above these qualities for they are meant to be limitless.

Keep in mind that we who belong to Jesus, the anointed one, have already experienced crucifixion.

Paul says that we've died in Christ.

It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

He was on to say for everything connected with our self-life was put to death on the cross and crucified with Messiah.

We must live in the Holy Spirit and follow after Him, so may we never be arrogant.

Or look down on another for each of us is an original.

We must forsake all jealousy that diminishes the value of others.

I believe this is the fruit of always step back. We find these moments of all.

One of the best ways to experience it is to see other people.

It's called through moral kindness when you see someone else be morally kind to another person.

You experience this, oh, that's the moment of all.

That's the moment of all. It becomes contagious.

That's that moment where there's tears into your eyes. You're not sad.

What was that? That's all.

Because it shows you what humanity can be when we step back.

We see people as originals and as people to be loved and as valuable.

And we need that more than anything right now.

Imagine if the church was driven by experiences of all and not fear.

Then I think transformation happens in our world, in our country, but in our community.

We're going to start here.

Let's go experience this. Let's go love people well.

Find those moments of all.

So the fruit can produce through you.

And you'll see love in all its great virtues, varying forms, expressions.

Love you guys. Let's go love well. We'll see you next week.

That's not true.