A New Way of Being Part 2: The Way of Wonder 2018-06-17

**Rev. Joshua Reeves** (0:00)
The following talk was given at Mile Hi Church in Lakewood, Colorado. Please visit our website at milehichurch.org. And the central point that I want to make with the message is that as important as everything that we do in our lives is, it doesn't compare to the importance of how you show up.
As much as our to-do list may tell us that that's what life is about, it's really about how we show up each and every day, centered consciously in the sacred, embodying our virtues and our values, and having trust and faith in this thing called life. There's no more creative action that I know of than just being willing to stand in the fullness of your being and allow the doing to take care of itself. Last week, I got to talk to you about the way of non-action, and today I get to share with you something I'm calling the way of wonder. And of all the great spiritual passages out there from all the many traditions, one of my favorites still comes from the stories of Jesus that we get in three of the Subnoptic Gospels, in Matthew, in Luke, and in Mark. And here are the words from Matthew.
At that very hour, the disciples came up to Jesus and said, Who is greatest in the kingdom of heaven? So Jesus called a little child and made him stand up in the midst of them. And he said, truly, I say to you, unless you can change and become like little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whoever therefore will humble himself like this little child shall be great in the kingdom of heaven. So how do we enter the kingdom of heaven? You don't have to be like a minister. You don't have to be like the most righteous person. You don't have to be the best Democrat or the best Republican. You don't have to be the richest person or even the wisest person. You need to be like a little kid. Sounds easy enough, doesn't it? You want to try it? Let's do it. Turn to your neighbor and go like this. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Let's start being like kids. We'll play all the time, we'll eat lots of cereal, we'll watch lots of cartoons, and we'll find ourselves in the kingdom of the divine. Easy enough, right? But to be honest, as I think about it, it's not so easy. You know, kids are very present creatures. It's hard for me to live in the present moment. I've got this thing called a past, where I'm daily giving thanks, but also regretting things all the time. It's hard for me to be in the present. I worry a lot, so I'm always in the future as well. Kids are generally very innocent and trusting. Experiences cause me to realize I've got a lot of growing young to do, because getting innocence back isn't so easy. And then kids have this amazing ability to practice the way of wonder, to be in awe. You know, I'm more apt to practice from time to time the way of meh, you know. I think I know life so well. I've defined it so exactly in my mind that it's hard for me to embrace and live in the joy of the mystery, to truly live in awe. So, I have some maturing innocence to do.
You know, speaking of the Bible, something that probably turned many of us off from traditional religion is this idea that we find in particular in the Hebrew scriptures or the Old Testament that you're supposed to fear God, you know, that God is judgmental. And the Bible even tells us that the beginning of wisdom is to fear the Lord.
And I read not that long ago, it's something very meaningful to me. I learned that the word translated into fear from the Hebrew that the Old Testament was initially written in is the word Yerah. And Yerah can be translated as fear, but it can also be translated as reverence or ah. Isn't that cool? That works for me. The beginning of wisdom is ah. The beginning of wisdom is reverence for the Lord. Reverence for life. And when we have that reverence, we live in contact with the divine. In certain parts of the Bible, it even kind of infers that God has fear. But I like the idea that God has reverence. That that's part of how the spirit acts in this world. That when you have an epiphany, when you make a heart connection, when you are able to utilize that power for good in the universe, greater than you are, and use it for constructive good in your life, that God expresses as awe in you. That the Lord is well pleased in that which you are.