Daily Pastoral #31

There’s a difference between ‘tacit’ and ‘focal’ awareness...

When I reach out to explore the bark of a tree with my hands, I’m only ‘tacitly’ aware of my hands. I’m not focusing on them. Rather, my ‘focal’ awareness is on the bark. So...

I indwell my hands
to explore the bark of the tree. 

In John’s Gospel, Jesus defines the terms of our relationship to him. He says that we are to “dwell” in him¹. 

We start with Jesus as the object of our focal awareness. We learn about the Scripture that formed him and his people (aka the Old Testament). We learn about his birth, ministry, death, and resurrection. As we learn about him, we are focally observing Jesus through language, concepts, etc.

And then, as we live with that gospel story, our awareness of Jesus moves from the focal to the tacit. 

We are no longer so focused on learning about Jesus.
We are absorbed INTO Jesus
and we focus on the world through him. 

We swap out our eyes, ears, nose, tastebuds, and hearts for Jesus’s.
We, as St. Paul might say, “Put on Christ.”² 

Jesus starts as the focus
and as we are absorbed into his story,
he becomes the body and mind we live through
and in turn, we become the body and mind he lives through. 

(I know, right?)

As Ever,
Jonas

1. Do you see why my head exploded when this sunk in for me? (Yes, #seminarymoments)

2. Romans 13:14