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Observation

The mysterious life of the spiritual person does not happen unobserved. We are all innately spiritual, but to live spiritually aware, to have my mind awakened to the spiritual that is all around me, requires “careful attention.” Our calculating mind operates without attention, it is on autopilot running as it deals with the incredibly large data sets we absorb each day. It takes all the data and organises our responses. But the spiritual part of our mind requires awakening and attention to observe and integrate into our decision-making process the data of the mystery of the spiritual. And our minds become healthier, and our lives become more abundant, as we open ourselves to the fullness of our spiritual life.
The spiritual informs in a different and deeper way. It is experienced and encountered information at a heart and soul level that when integrated into our lives shapes us, and those around us, in profound ways. It is not measured and calculated data, but beauty, awe, wonder, love, forgiveness, mercy, it’s the hidden everywhere visible presence of God speaking and shaping us.
In this world of over-informed, hyper-screened, exhaustedness, we must choose to give careful attention, to wait, to choose silence, to open our eyes anew, to our spiritual life or we will remain dead to the part of us that brings us health and abundance in life. One part of our mind helps us navigate, and the spiritual part of our brain releases healing and life. It is only when we pay this careful attention to the spiritual will this anxious, stressed, depressed culture we have created bursts forth with true life. We will not medicate, or talk our way through, although these can be helpful, we must become alive to a present God who heals by being present. There is a mysterious beauty, meaning and purpose to life that is only found in spiritual aliveness. Being spiritually alive not only heals but protects our minds from the rumination of data that cannot see life, hope, and beauty but rather becomes stuck in the vortex of analysing situations and probabilities. Spiritual awareness breaks the cycle with new information at a deeper level that releases life and healing. “Give careful attention to your spiritual life.”

Application

I will not miss this abundant life that is present to me everywhere. I will not rob myself and those who live in the orbit of my aliveness and live from the fullness of the mystery of the spiritual realm. I will pay careful attention to the presence of God hidden in all things. I will become awake through gratitude, solitude, contemplation, exhilaration and awe. I will be awake to the beauty all around me, to life bursting forth everywhere, to the interactions of life that appear to the unawakened mind as coincidences. I will see his awesomeness everywhere. I will pay the price in this crippling busy world to what I need more than anything, my spiritual aliveness.

Response

Thank you that you made me for you and that I am not fully alive outside of my being present to your presence. Thank you that you invite me into deliberate relational attentiveness. Thank you that you are hidden for any who have eyes to see. You never force yourself but when awakened I see you everywhere and become alive and healthier to live in your presence and your intended fullness. What a life you designed for me, thank you for the ability to engage fully in your desire for me.

Meditation

Meditate – Give careful attention to your spiritual life.
Consider:
What does it mean to you practically to pay attention?
Is the healing you are looking for from the stress and anxiety of life found in paying attention to your spiritual life?