Saturday, March 14

Awe and Wonder
Reflection from Marc Mullinax

“11Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind, and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake, 12 and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire, and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. 

---I Kings 19

In my back woods, about this time of year, I get to witness one of the true mysteries of my life: the dinosaur-like presence of the Pileated Woodpecker. Stunning and memorable that bird is. I am gobsmacked speechless by awe, wonder and quiet reverie. Like Moses at his Burning Bush, when, and how, do you get stupefied into silenced, and feel yourself silenced in the presence of something immense or mysterious? 

In the face of Wonder and Awe, words fail quickly and oh-so-miserably. Words are just sounds, signals we offer on the altar of our idols hoping to steal (like Prometheus stole fire) a full picture of the Mystery of Life. But at best, sounds are merely signposts to the Way of Mystery, not its definition or destination. Our language over a lifetime gets tailored and shaped by our desires, and can mislead. For words are profligate and contagious: they lead only to more wordy noise, to prematurely relegating mystery into explanation. Mystery has nothing that can re-present It. Only awe and wonder point to It.

Only an idol always answers. The God who keeps silence, even when God’s own flesh and blood is begging for a word, is the God beyond anyone’s control. An answer will come, but not until the silence is complete. And even then, the answer will be given in silence. With the cross and the empty tomb, God has provided us with two events that defy all our efforts to domesticate them. Before them, and before the God who is present in them, our most eloquent words turn to dust. (Barbara Brown Taylor, When God is Silent, p. 80)

We each have natural human states of being silenced and wordless, states occasioned by situations that stay, quieten, or extinguish thinking altogether: ecstasy, body-shaking, tear-producing laughter, delight, meditation, getting one’s jaw dropped in awe and wonder. Go out into the clear night sky and gaze up at the stars, and your jaw slackens as your entire body feels the grandeur of what’s above. Remember when you were at the Grand Canyon, or you took rapturous delight in a child. Thinking stopped. You just were. Your word fabricator of a brain has gone on a vacation. Which it needs!! We are fascinated by the words, said Ram Dass, but where we meet is the silence behind them. Which is what W.A. Mozart referred to: The music is not in the notes, but in the silence in between. Which is why a well-timed musical pause can feel almost sacred. Notes or words carry sound, but silence carries meaning.

Practices: Consider one of two directions. ONE: Who are you without words? What kind of life might emerge, just by lessening the sheer number of words one uses? What happens to life if you redirect your energies, FROM chatty words … TO speechless silence, wonder, and reverie. TWO: Notice how words you hear, read, or say … can hide, mislead, and obstruct, even unintentionally. Notice how we tend to diminish or condense our most powerful experiences when we frame them with words, concepts and definitions.