Awe Doesn't Announce Itself — It Interrupts You | Passed By | Daniel Gertson & Britney Carrasco

But yeah, but we thought we'd do something different, something a little bit out of the ordinary, but hopefully cool.

>> Yeah, and instead of just like a regular assignment, especially when we were talking about, we wanted to make this more of a conversation.

And so again, when I actually met up with this week, we talked through a lot of them a couple of times, and we both shared our stories.

And we really didn't wear all those obstacles, we were just talking.

And we didn't do that to pan out this exactly, but what I think we discovered is that this was beyond our individual experience.

So I thought both were together, too.

We didn't want this to be a center on one person's experience as well.

Because the use of unity and doing life with everyone here is that experiences that are run together with women

are far greater than we wanted to experience.

And this year after our talk, we know that we've been talking about all of the ones that we've done that.

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>> It is an awe-inspiring thing to have made it nine years.

>> It is an awe-inspiring thing.

So, in order to do that, I'm going to say that we're not going to do that.

So, in order to do that, I'm going to say that we're not going to do that.

So, in order to do that, we're not going to do that.

So, in order to do that, we're not going to do that.

So, in order to do that, we're not going to do that.

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>> To help bring that, we've been talking a lot about all of them.

So, in order to do that, we've been talking a lot about them.

So, in order to do that, we've been talking a lot about them.

So, in order to do that, we've been talking about them.

So, in order to do that, we've been talking about them.

So, in order to do that, we've been talking about them.

So, in order to do that, we've been talking about them.

So, in order to do that, we've been talking about them.

So, in order to do that, we've been talking about them.

So, in order to do that, we've been talking about them.

So, in order to do that, we've been talking about them.

>> Yeah.

That is, I think, our natural thought is, like, at the Grand Canyon.

That's always, like, the overused example, right?

But I think building on what Chad was talking about last week,

when we can kind of slow down and just make space,

like in our minds and in our schedules and things like that,

we can find all, like, in smaller places, too.

And I think that's part of the challenge.

But it's also a little bit reassuring, maybe, or encouraging to know,

I don't have to, like, take a vacation or, like,

go to outer space to experience awe.

Like, you can find these, like, in the everyday.

I guess it's inevitable that I'm going to use my daughter as an example in things.

But, so, Grace, she's 18 months now,

and she is absolutely obsessed with helicopters.

She calls them hub-bub-bub.

And where we live, just a few blocks away,

like, there's helicopters that'll fly around downtown,

you know, the sightseeing helicopters,

and sometimes helicopters that are going to and from the hospital.

But, so, I mean, we'll be just, like, eating dinner or something,

and she'll hear it.

The girl has good ears, because she will hear it,

and she just like stops, and she looks at me and goes,

hub-bub-bub!

And she'll raise her hands, because she wants me to pick her up and run

out onto the balcony so we can, like, look across the sky to try to find the helicopter.

And then, like, on one end of the balcony,

and then we run to the other end of the balcony to follow it as it goes along.

But she just loves helicopters.

And it's like, oh, she's finding awe.

And I mean, yeah, helicopters are cool, that things can fly as cool.

But she's finding awe in something that I take for granted a lot of times.

And then another instance with Grace that I've noticed is, like, I can mention,

she's 18 months old, she's learning to eat with utensils.

And I'm going to be honest, she's not good at it right now.

And so, this often ends up kind of messy,

and I'm at home with her a lot, and so I'm going to have to clean this up.

And that can really, like, frustrate me.

And I'll just, I want to do it myself and just be like, hey, let's just eat

and get it over with.

But, you know, like, that's a, I know that I need to work on that.

I know God is working on me through Grace.

But, but, when I am able to stop and think about it,

she's got all these fresh baby neurons that are forming and, like, coming together

and making all these connections.

And so, she's, as she's picking up a fork and, like, thinking about how to grip it

and then, you know, stab the eggs or whatever it is.

And then, angle that, like, raise that the right amount to go into her mouth.

There's just a lot happening in such a small thing as eating.

And that's amazing.

Like, there's something really, I mean, we can understand it all we want,

but it still feels pretty miraculous that all that is happening.

And it's happening just in this tiny little package of a human who's, you know,

making a mess at the end of my table.

But, this is an opportunity.

Again, if I can, like, think about it, pause and think about it

and let myself experience this.

Oh, that's just right there.

And it's there.

It is there every day.

But, you know, like, think about, you hear the statistic about how many, like, bacteria

and virus and fungi are in your stomach, are in your guts.

And it's, like, trillions.

Like, trillions.

There's, like, as many organisms in your digestive tract as there are cells in your body.

So it's like you're as much bacteria as you are human cells.

Like, it's fascinating.

Like, that's weird.

That's really weird to think about.

But it's amazing that that's happening.

And, you know, you think about, like, the way cells are held together.

And it just keeps going, you know?

I mean, it's incredible.

It's just, like, these fractal kind of patterns of awe in the universe.

Like, to paraphrase the quote, like, it feels like it's wonder all the way down.

But we have to pause, like, we learned last week.

And then we have to, like, tune our awareness to it.

And that can be a challenge, for sure.

But it feels like the invitation's there.

Does that make sense?

Right.

On that example, another way to talk about when I'm talking.

I know that scrolling on your phone so maybe I get the bad rap.

For a good reason, how to learn, like, there's something you can talk about.

Like, it can be hard in your heart.

So, well, there's something around it that you can work on.

But I think that you're talking about whether you talk too much and why you always do it.

Not because of the reason you're doing it, but because you're kind of talking to me, too.

And I am having, I was looking at something so far from somebody that is a natural.

You have hands to raise a bunch of money for the community.

And then you have a lot of money for the community.

And then you have a lot of money for the community.

And then you have a lot of money for the community.

And then you have a lot of money for the community.

And then you have a lot of money for the community.

And then you have a lot of money for the community.

And then you have a lot of money for the community.

And then you have a lot of money for the community.

And then you have a lot of money for the community.

And then you have a lot of money for the community.

And then you have a lot of money for the community.

And then you have a lot of money for the community.

And then you have a lot of money for the community.

And then you have a lot of money for the community.

And then you have a lot of money for the community.

Yeah, that's an interesting way to think about it.

That it's like kind of grabbing.

And we wanted to open the floor a little bit here.

Like what moments have done that to you?

Like what kinds of things have you seen like that interrupt your life?

Can you think of, does anything come to mind when we talk about that?

Are you here, Brittany's story?

Yeah, there's not a bad answer.

Okay.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's awesome.

Yeah, that's awesome.

Yeah, that's awesome.

Yeah.

Can be unexpected.

One of the very, very back.

Okay.

Yeah, that's awesome.

Yeah, I know we're going to talk in the next few weeks kind of about what to do with these moments.

Because yeah, what do you do with crying in a JV Mariachi classroom?

But yeah, anything else?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Frank Sinatra.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, the Holy Spirit can speak through all blue eyes too.

Yeah, that's cool.

Yeah, so I love these examples because there's a variety of them.

Some, it's just kind of nature and spontaneous.

A lot of it's relationship based.

And I love that even like kind of internal can be a source of awe.

In the Bible, we see a couple, there's a couple stories from the stories about Jesus that kind of point to this a little bit.

Chad kind of planted these ideas.

It was like, oh, I've never thought about that angle on these stories before.

But we'll just talk about a couple of them real quick.

So the first one is the story.

It's known kind of as the widows might, the story of the widows might.

You may know it.

But it's a really, it's a pretty short story.

We find it in the Gospel of Luke.

And at this point, Jesus is in Jerusalem.

It's getting kind of close to the end of his ministry before he gets arrested.

He's crucified by the religious leaders and the government there.

That's just a few days away.

And so here he's teaching a lot as he did throughout his ministry about the kingdom of God.

And talking about the way in which things are very different in the kingdom of God.

And so he's at the temple and sees this, sees this.

And so we find it in chapter 21, it's verses one through four, where it says,

"He looked up and saw rich people putting their gifts into the treasury.

He also saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins.

He said, "Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them.

All of them have contributed out of their abundance, but she, out of her poverty,

has put in all she had to live on."

It's a short little story.

And it works, I think it works on a few levels.

So, you know, obviously we can, I feel like maybe we've heard this as kind of

praising the widow for her genuine sacrificial generosity,

contrasting that with kind of the performative sacrifice less,

giving that the rich people did in the story.

I've heard it kind of like abused because people, sometimes people say like,

"See, you have to give everything to the church to be blessed."

And so it can get kind of misused, I think, in that situation.

But for our purposes and our conversation, I think it's interesting

to the fact that Jesus sees this at all.

So, he's in the temple, there's lots of people milling about,

and obviously there were many rich people getting up and putting their gifts into the treasury.

But Jesus kind of focuses in on this poor woman that he sees her.

That's what he notices because he's tuned to the real moments, right?

Like these moments of, I guess, of genuineness sees her faith, sees her passion for the people of God

and focuses in on that.

Even though it wasn't showy, it wasn't flashy.

But that's what Jesus sees and calls out and kind of lifts up as awe-inspiring.

There's another story.

It's a couple of places in the gospels, but we're going to look at it in Mark.

So it's also in Matthew, and then Luke tells us a little bit of a different version.

But in Mark chapter 10, we see the story.

Mark 10 · chapter mention

So again, Jesus is traveling around.

He's going between Jerusalem and Jericho, and then he finishes in Jericho and he's on his way back.

He's talking still in the passages around Mark. He's talking a lot about the kingdom of God.

He's done the whole "Let the little children come to me" thing.

Children were, had zero rights, zero status.

But Jesus says, "These are important people," and said, "For such as these, the kingdom of God belongs."

He's done the whole "It's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God."

He's even chastised his own disciples because they were fighting for status, a place of status, in his kingdom.

And he tells them, "Whoever wants to be first among you must become slave of everyone."

So he's leaving Jericho, and then that's where the story happens.

So it says, "They came to Jericho as he and his disciples, and a large cloud were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus, son of Timaeus,

a blind beggar was sitting by the roadside."

When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, "Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me."

Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, "Son of David, have mercy on me."

Jesus stood still and said, "Call him here." And they called to the blind man, saying, "Take heart, go up, he's calling to you."

So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus.

Then Jesus said to him, "What do you want me to do for you?" The blind man said to him, "My teacher, let me see again."

Jesus said to him, "Go, your faith has made you well."

Immediately, he regained his sight and followed him on the way.

So the story, again, there's a number of things we can see happening here.

There's this idea that Jesus is not bothered by someone who's coming to him with desperation and in desperate faith.

That doesn't offend Jesus or it's not too much.

We also see Jesus doesn't ask for anything. He doesn't demand that the person change or do anything to deserve his blessing.

I think those are all good, but again, we're going to look at the fact that Jesus saw him anyway.

There's a big crowd. They're all going around. The guy was calling out, but he doesn't have any right to try to talk to.

This preacher that's going around the countryside, but Jesus, he's like stops on his journey and he ignores the loud,

the very insistent, repressive crowd and instead decides to engage with Bartimaeus, who Jesus is turning his attention

to the lowest, most powerless, most overlooked members of his society.

Instead of Jesus passing by, Jesus decides he's going to stop and he's going to enter into this sacred holy moment.

I think that's kind of what we're talking about when we're talking about noticing awe.

What can I talk about when we're talking about people's stories and that kind of thing is so consistent in Jesus' character in a way that he is living out of his life.

It's that he's going to do better and rush on his own.

We know that there is a reason why we want to live in Jesus' family to everyone else, that there is a connection.

And Jesus is coming and having a spirit.

He has a spirit in Jesus' spirit.

Not because of the moment that he's being created by Jesus, but because of his resurrection.

And I think that he's working because of the fact that he's always so powerful and think of matters as obvious as he is.

Well, I think all of you have to know that it's a very nice family, a bit honest with you.

So I want to talk to you a little bit about what you do when you live with a Holy Spirit.

And I think it works a lot of things like talking to you.

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Oh, like Ridge is the Lost Ark? Oh, okay. Indiana Jones. Indiana Jones. Everyone.

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Yeah, yeah, we got that.

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Yeah, yeah, it's participation, it's holy, and that is awe-inspiring.

It's almost, you feel like a number of the things we've talked about and given it as examples of awe, like even imagination.

It's like it's always there. We just have to see it, have to maybe shift our perspective a little bit to let it in.

I think that's so cool. That reminds me, that makes me think about God's presence.

We think of God as being everywhere all at once, like the fancy word is omnipresent, that we can't actually be far from God.

The Psalmist talks about this, Paul talks about it, right? But we can feel far from God.

I know when I'm stressed about work or stressed about the health of a loved one or the general state of the world,

it can feel like God's kind of far away. Maybe when I've been on a self-destructive path or been giving in to those really negative patterns, things like that,

I can feel like God is really far away. But I think that it's different than that in reality.

I think that God is really just like a moment away, that just like just a small shift in my understanding, my awareness,

even a lot of times just remembering the fact that God is there, that I'm not alone and that God is always right there.

And I think that awe, wonder, which maybe we're just talking about a piece of God themselves, right?

That it's kind of the same thing. Whether we're looking in nature, whether it's on our social media feed or the kid throwing food,

that maybe it's our neighbor, maybe it's our enemy, that awe is right there. God's presence is right there.

And similarly, that awe can be right there. We just have to kind of adjust or reorient our perspective, our minds,

and remember that it's right there. And so I think our challenge then is kind of to hold on to that shift,

because I think it's easy to set it down in just the busyness of every day.

But I think as we go about this week that we can kind of take up this challenge to, let's try to remember that, try to hold on to that fact

that I can see awe everywhere, that God is always right there and that awe is there too.

I know we're going to talk more about kind of what to do with this. Like, all right, cool. I found the awe now.

What? But I know we're going to talk about some of that and some practices.

And so for now, I think we're just kind of carrying on, building on the challenge of last week of resting

and just creating the mental and temporal space for awe. And then so we can add to that, I guess,

just this subtle shift in our attention that we can now be just aware of these invitations to wonder.

And just that's all around us.

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And awe is what is interrupting the wrong way.

And in many months, just in many months, I've said that I did, or totally,

it doesn't mean that that moment of my presence is what gives it that kind of ability to have a better way.

[laughter]

Sounds good.

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I would love to experience it through you, through what brings you to that awareness of awe.

What is interrupting you and stops you? What is happening in your imagination that is going to shift our reality in our future?

And then to recognize awe in the beauty of the faces of the people that are around you.

It's just not limited to the definitions that we've given it before, because the Holy is around you, the sacred is within you.

And from that awareness of awe, we are invited to go love well, because that is who you are created to be.

So, we say it every week, arsenal, go love well to you are made to be.