For I am always aware of your unfailing love, and I have lived according to your truth. Psalm 26:3
I run with my dog about two times a week. She’s unlike any other personal trainer, as she’s quick to want to cuddle with me right after a five-mile run. And I happily oblige. One early morning jog, I was listening to a sermon and the pastor said, “Your awareness is your worship.” And it has stuck with me ever since.
Because isn’t it so very true? How aware we are to our present reality and how we take the time to see God in everyone and everything – including ourselves – increases our worship.
And yet, we live in a world of distraction.
According to a recent study, we touch our phones 2,617 times a day. Dopamine hit after dopamine hit, we are feeding a socially acceptable addiction. We live in a world of noise. We get distracted with the news and its short news bites. Silence can seem foreign to many of us, as we reach for even an ounce of white noise, anything to fill the void.
In his book, The Screwtape Letters, CS Lewis is “quoting” the demon saying, “We will make the whole universe a noise in the end. The melodies and silences of Heaven will be shouted down.”
If noise is America’s currency, awareness is God’s. Because what is truer than any 2021 news bite is that you and I are created in God’s image. We were made for a perfect garden to be fully aware of God’s presence; His kind, grace-filled Being lingering next to our very skin. Indeed, we were made for this kind of life. Did you know that your eyes were created to see 1 million different colors and your nose was made to smell 1 trillion different odors? It’s true. It’s because we were designed to grow in awareness of our good Father.
Our awareness is our worship.
As we grow in our awareness of God, He can’t help but point to His one true love – every child, every man, every woman – He ever created. Because least we forget that God so loved the world that He sent His Son Jesus to save us all. He came for the sick, the weary, the wealthy, the rich. He came for the broken-hearted, grumpy, the complicated, the clingy. He came for you, and He came for me.
The well of awareness of God’s love inside of us will increase our well of awareness of God’s love for every person we come in contact with daily. It’s a direct correlation, a math formula that only God can complete. If we want to grow in love for our neighbor, we first start with growing aware of God’s love for us.
QUESTIONS:
- Pause. What is around you right now and how do you see God’s reflection? Name it and point its goodness back to God.
- What distracts you the most on a day-to-day basis?
- Who can you be aware of today and reach out to encourage?
SCRIPTURE:
Genesis 1:27: “So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”
Hebrews 12:2: “We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne.”
Whitney Putnam
Director of Philanthropy