awe.

There must be a time...when the [person] of resolutions puts [those] resolutions aside as if they had all been broken, and he learns a different wisdom.

~ Thomas Merton

Knowledge is fostered by curiosity; wisdom is fostered by awe.

~ Abraham Heschel

The New Year feels like a fresh start for many of us, a chance to re-create a life with greater alignment, sharper focus, and more meaning. The tool we’re most familiar with is “resolutions,” and it’s a favorite of life coaches everywhere. Today, though, I’d like to piggyback on Merton’s quote above and suggest a different approach.

Resolutions carry the power of intention, and that’s a formidable tool to guide our attention in new directions. But it has its limits, as we know all too well. In fact, sometimes we find more entertainment in the memes of resolution failures than we find utility in the resolutions themselves. Be that as it may, eventually the contemplative learns that there is a deeper wisdom to be found when it comes to transformation, and it has more to do with humble awe than powering up.

Truth is, we can’t change ourselves in any deep way with willpower alone. As Albert Einstein famously said, “You cannot solve a problem with the same mind that created it,” which is why most resolutions do eventually fail. Even our desire to be formed into the image of Christ takes, well, Christ! Fortunately, graciously, miraculously the Spirit of Christ indwells us all. “Christ in you, the hope of glory,” Paul describes it. Our job—and yes, we do have an essential role in this process—is to discern the leading of the Spirit toward the image of Christ and say yes. To surrender to the True Self and find the unique joy of that authenticity rather than the superficial buzz of an inauthentic indulgence. The contemplative calls this Wisdom.

Heschel picks up the story here—a mystical Jew who captures the crux of the matter in ways Christians often miss. Faith is not belief, an assent to a proposition, he says. Faith is attachment to transcendence, to the meaning beyond the mystery. And this is why mystics of all faith traditions have this knack for seeing our alikeness more than our differences and for drawing us toward one another to welcome and include rather than censor and exclude. Mystics don’t typically quibble over dogma; instead, they unite around communing with God.

This moves me deeply. How about you? I believe this is the wisdom that brings us into our own communion with God and with one another. And then, strangely… or perhaps not so strangely… it brings us into alignment with our truest identity and purpose. It accomplishes what resolutions, no matter how lofty, cannot. Communion brings wisdom, and wisdom brings transformation.

growing the soul

So what are you most eager to change in yourself in 2024? And how might you move toward that alignment through contemplative practice rather than resolutions?

serving the world

The genius of contemplation is that it moves us intuitively toward action. And mystically speaking, true contemplation is action! It affects the larger world, not just ourselves.

takeaway

Rediscover awe in 2024.