Week Five: Consciousness/Awareness. January 29: Why do I need to Awaken?
When the sun breaks through clouds it doesn’t indicate an increase of sun. The sun has always been fully shining. It is the gradual breaking through of what has always been there. Martin Laird
Gregg’s Reflection
The deeper spiritual journey leads us into deeper awareness, a transformed consciousness. That’s why each time you read scripture, you are looking at it with different eyes, a different level of consciousness.
My spiritual journey began with the haunting question: Is this all there is? I grew up unchurched, coming of age during Vietnam and Watergate. My trust in institutions eroded, and I had nowhere to place my faith. As the son of an entrepreneur, I was expected to join the family business. During college, I wondered if my life’s purpose was simply to work, accumulate wealth, and wait for it all to fade away. Wasn’t there more to live for?
Eventually, I recognized what I was feeling as spiritual discontent — the Spirit’s stirring within me, awakening a yearning for more. I began to sense what I later came to understand as the divine spark within.
The question returned decades later, reframed: Am I taking my relationship with God for granted? What would it look like to go deeper? Again, it was spiritual discontent that pushed me further along the contemplative path.
Awakening has been a decades-long, never-ending process. God first revealed Himself to me in the mountains and deserts of the American West. Standing before those mighty vistas, I felt so small, so insignificant, that I knew this could not be the product of random chance.
Scripture
You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
Psalm 51:6
I pray that God may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you and the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe.
Ephesians 1:17–19
Ancient Quotes
To the dull mind, nature is leaden; to the illuminated mind, the whole world burns and sparkles with light.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature
Modern Quotes
The practice of contemplative prayer is the discipline by which we begin to ‘see’ the living God dwelling in our own hearts… It is by being awake to this God within that we also find the Presence in the world around us. Here we are again in front of the secret: it is not that we see God in the world, but that God-with-us recognizes God in the world. God speaks to God, Spirit speaks to Spirit, heart speaks to heart.
Henri Nouwen, Nouwen Society Daily Devotional, March 22, 2023
When the sun breaks through clouds it doesn’t indicate an increase of sun. The sun has always been fully shining. It is the gradual breaking through of what has always been there. It is simply that more mental clutter has been cleared and now we can see. When the dark clouds return to cover the sun we now realize the sun continues to shine splendidly as ever.
Martin Laird, Ocean of Light, p. 98
At one point I said, “I’m willing to go through whatever experiences are necessary in order to wake up.” It was very difficult, but every step I took, there was something I saw in retrospect that I absolutely needed in order for part of my consciousness to heal.
Rodney Smith, Kathleen Singh, The Grace in Living p. 180
Journaling Prompts
- In what areas of your life are you most spiritually awake?
- Where do you feel you are still spiritually asleep?
- What might God be inviting you to awaken to today?
- What spiritual practices, places, or spaces bring you to awe?
👉 Go deeper into this week’s theme:
Read the full Week 5 Reflection: Consciousness/Awareness