Quotes About Awareness

Preliminary 2: In a Mirror, Dimly

They do not know what they are doing and do not have the ability to distance themselves from it so they can see it for what it is. That is the power of "culture.

Seek not to speak, but that you might have something to say.

Train yourself to use each change of person or event to remind you to pray and to bless, so that mere change becomes a signal to turn your mind back to God.

Knowledge" in biblical language never refers to what we today call "head knowledge," but always to experiential involvement with what is known—to actual engagement with it.

We can fail to know because we do not want to know - because what would be known would require us to believe and act in ways contrary to what we want.

Genius, it is said, is the ability to scrutinize the obvious.

he ruined soul must be willing to recognize its own ruin before it can discover how to enter a different path

We live from our depths—most of which we do not understand. "Do

invite Jesus into each new situation or interaction.

This time of reflection should also include thanksgiving for all the ways the day went well.

Sit in the companionship of God—the one who shows up and can be seen.

God, I want to give You every minute of this year. I shall try to keep You in mind every moment of my waking hours. . . . I shall try to let You be the speaker and direct every word. I shall try to let You direct my acts. I shall try to learn Your language. —FRANK LAUBACH

In feelings we really know that something is "there," and solidly so. But what it is and why it is remains obscure—though hauntingly present.

Here's one from me: 'You have to be aware that everyone else is thinking far too hard about themselves to be thinking about you, whoever you are.' If you want it, you can have it. Once you know that, you can be free.

The answer to how to live is to stop thinking about it. And just to live. But you're doing that anyway. However you intellectualise it, you still just live

Ignoring our emotions is turning our back on reality; listening to our emotions ushers us into reality. And reality is where we meet God.

We often don't know our own stories because we doubt their existence, dismiss their importance, or we're distracted.

The shattering [of shalom] moves us from a place of shalom to a place that is harsh and unrelenting. The shattering brings us a keen awareness that we are alone and in danger. We are on our own.

Speed is the ultimate defense, the antidote to stopping and really looking. If we really saw what we were doing and who we had become, we feel we might not survive the stopping and the accompanying self-appraisal. So we don't stop, and the faster we go, the harder it becomes to stop.

It seems many people operate on the principle that whatever happened to them is not abuse, but if it had happened to someone else, or if it had been a bit more extreme, then it would have been abusive.

Emotion links our internal and external worlds. To be aware of what we feel can open us to questions we would rather ignore. For many of us, that is precisely why it is easier not to feel. But a failure to feel leaves us barren and distant from God and others.

That was the birth of religion, a shameful covering to hide our true human nature and pretend that we don't know what we know.

Sometimes, all you have to do is shift your perspective to see someone else's truth.