Great Awakening
The Great Awakening experienced in the 18th century sought to awaken people from the idea of secular rationalism as our connection as human beings to the spiritual life began to wane. The Age of Reason & Enlightenment had taken hold in Europe and made its way across the Atlantic to the colonies. These Great Awakenings interpreted this as a great threat to humanity and sought through tactics of fear to “rescue” humanity from it’s grip. People were free to pursue happiness and personal liberty in this new age. But the church was losing its grip as humankind began to see itself in this new light.
The Big Sleep
Where did we lose our sense of reason and free thinking? We killed off God and the Spiritual life in order to secure the right to live our lives as we saw fit, free of the grip of the church. But now we have lost those rights, nay, given up those rights to the fear of an idea. An idea that there lurks around every corner, within ourselves and our neighbors some unseen threat some believe we cannot control. The Great Awakening of the 18th century and its tactic of fear could not in the long run steal away our new found liberty. Are we now going to allow the fear of an imagined threat steal from us that liberty we (used to) hold so dear?
It is my belief that there is a silver lining threading its way through our fears today. Over various social networks we are sharing our experiences – our sufferings – with others in other countries as we strive to make sense of this growing world wide social experiment. The people of the world are being brought together as never before. Yes, it is easier to appease, it is easier to acquiesce to the mandate to hide our faces from one another in fear. Fear of a virus no more virulent than the flu, fear of the authorities hauling us away into a deeper darkness, fear of not following the flow of the masses. We are inundated with data that makes no sense but comes from those we deem “authorities on the matter”. And so we set aside our own powers of reason and succumb to the lies of this new religion.
The Great Awakening is Now
Persons of different nations are being brought together by this propagandized threat. Nationalism, and its egotistical underpinnings, is being dismantled as a new international togetherness is growing. We are learning to know others in other nations. We are learning, through shared suffering, how to love others of different cultural backgrounds. We are learning to love and understand those we not so long ago were told to hate as enemies. This new internationalism is a new Great Awakening. As we share our sufferings with one another, we, I firmly believe, are seeing a new rise of the Spirit within each one of us.
This new Great Awakening will not fail. Love will not fail.
A Prayer for All of Us
Where there is hatred, let us sow love. Where there is injury, let us sow pardon. Where there is doubt, faith. Where there is despair, hope. Where there is darkness, light. And where there is sadness, let us sow the comfort of joy.
The above is the first portion of St. Francis’ prayer. We propose that our readers commit themselves to the reading of this prayer, wherever you are, every morning as you begin your day. Repeat it throughout the day to bring strength and resolve. In this way we bind ourselves to one another and strengthen our collective energies to fight this war against humanity on a firmer foundation – a Spiritual foundation – than those who seek to rob us of that humanity. We are spiritual beings. Our spiritual self has been suppressed for too long. The time is now for us to regain this precious side of ourselves.
No. More. Fear.
This “covid-thing” is a tragedy wherever fear prevails. Fear is the real enemy, the real virus. But as I have said before, what has been taught down through the ages, love casts out fear. Let’s strive to turn this around.
If civil disobedience is called for, let us perform it with the peace that surpasses understanding within our hearts. But let us not sit idly by and let what is so precious to us as human beings be robbed from us because we fail to stand against a threat that might cost us something less valuable than our liberty. We have become too addicted to ease and comfort. Freedom always comes with sacrifice. Let’s begin again to live on principles that have been an inalienable part of being human since long before tyrants began their plan to treat the common person as no more than sheep.
Should we not bind our arms, our thoughts, our prayers together and therefore prevent this current “threat” from tearing us apart? Instead of continuing to be as lambs, let us confront this Great Reset with a Great Awakening and let us roar as one like a lion in the face of fear.
Thanks for reading.
Memento vivere
Addendum
I just went to get a few groceries at a local store in Ogden. As I stood contemplating what else to throw in the cart, a wonderful woman, without donning a mask I must add, looked at me, and as our eyes met she said, “It’s so nice to see a face.”
From that kind and loving comment spawned a 30 or so minute conversation about “all of this” i.e. the state of the world. In terms of this post, she, like me, was “awake”. In the course of our conversation she asked the question, “what do we do – the few of us who see – to help others ‘wake up’?” My answer was simple – be who YOU are. Not who you think you need to be, not who you believe others want you to be, but who you are in reality. If we learn to Love for Love’s sake, we can find the honesty required to love ourselves truthfully. When we can do that, we can be honest with ourselves and, therefore, learn who we REALLY are. With that power intact, we can exercise honesty – on a foundation of Love, with others and simply be ourselves. This alone will effect change like we cannot hardly imagine.
Thanks, Karen, for the time, your time, your love. It means the world to me and, well, the world.
THE LION OF JUDAH IS ROARING !