Excerpts from "An Altar in the World" by: Barbara Brown Taylor

"According to the classical philosopher Paul Woodruff, reverence is the virtue that keeps people from trying to act like gods. ""To forget that you are only human,""he says, ""to think you can act like a god--this is the opposite of reverence."" While most of us live in a culture that reveres money, reveres power, reveres education and religion, Woodruff argues that true reverence cannot be for anything that human beings can make or manage by ourselves." 

 

"Reverence stands in awe of something--something that dwarfs the self, that allows human beings to sense the full extent of our limits--so that we can begin to see one another more reverently as well. An irreverent soul who is unable to feel awe in the presence of things higher than the self is also unable to feel respect in the presence of things it sees as lower than the self."

"Reverence may take all kinds of forms, depending on what it is that awakens awe in you by reminding you of your true size. As I learned on that night of falling starts in Ohio, nature is a good place to start. Nature is full of things bigger and more powerful than human beings, including but not limited to night skies, ocean, thunderstorms, deserts, grizzly bears, earthquakes, and rain-swollen rivers. But size is not everything. Properly attended to, even a salt marsh mosquito is capable of evoking reverence. See those white and black striped stockings on legs thinner than a needle? Where in those legs is there room for knees? And yet see how they bend as the bug lowers herself to your flesh. Soon you and she will be blood kin. You itch is the price of her life. Swat her if you must, but not without telling her she is beautiful first."

"The practice of paying attention is as simple as looking twice at people and things you might just as easily ignore. To see takes time, like having a friend takes time. It is as simple as turning off the television to learn the song of a single bird. Why should anyone do such things? i cannot imagine--unless one is weary of crossing days off the calendar with no sense of what makes the last day different from the next. Unless one is wear of acting in what feels more like a t.v. commercial than a life. The practice of paying attention offers no quick fix for such weariness, with guaranteed results printed on the side. Instead, it is one way into a different way of life, full of treasure for those who are willing to pay attention to exactly where they are."

Indescribable, by Chris Tomlin

Majestic Nature

Exaltation in a Mutilated World.

I remembered my time visiting Dachau Concentration Camp. A cold, eerie feeling resonated there, even 63 years after the genocide had ended. I felt a reverence for the place, even though it had been a place of evil, there was still something to be learned and revered—for the millions who had taken their last breath within those gates of hell. How did these men focus on the good in the world? How do you see beauty and life when everything surrounding you is evil and dead? My goal became to figure out how one finds beauty in a world of turmoil.

I began by interviewing four people, all different ages, to figure out what they revere in this world—good or bad...

The first was a wide-eyed, innocent five-year-old boy who had yet to experience the heavy substance of life. The boy stated that he finds the most happiness when he is playing games with his mommy and daddy. 

Next, I spoke with a teenage girl in high school who stated that she finds the most reverence when looking at the stars at night. “Every time I gaze up at the lit up sky, I feel like it is swallowing me whole; I feel so small and minute. I know that there is someone who must love me enough to even keep my sinful heart beating when there are bigger and more glorious things to tend to.” 

Thirdly, I spoke with a middle-aged woman who is an OBGYN at her local hospital. She stated that she finds reverence almost daily in the help of childbirth. Seeing another life be brought into this world is incredible. “Seeing someone’s first breaths on this earth is exhilarating.” 

To end my interview I decided to find someone who has experienced the ups and downs that planet earth has to offer. I found a man who is nearing the end of his life, who finds himself behind the closed doors of a nursing home. “My children and grandchildren” he stated. “Never in my life have I seen or experienced anything more wondrous than to see my beautiful family grow and prosper.”

What can one learn from those that I interviewed? One can learn that reverence doesn’t always have to be the stereotypical things of ‘beauty’ or ‘happiness.’ I learned that reverence can be experienced by focusing on the small things around you, or even within yourself. Your body can be something to revered since it really is not ours but our creators. We are simply here, renting this body, to fulfill the work of our Father. Reverence can be looking up at the sky on a clear night, or watching your children grow up. Reverence doesn’t just occur when life is going great for someone or your feeling happy. Your world can be upside down. I realized that maybe the women in Afganistan still find beauty, or the children in Thailand still laugh. Admist turmoil, one can find pleasure. There is always something to be revered no matter the time or place.  

I have learned that reverence doesn’t exist in a perfect world, it exists in a catastrophic and tragic one. There is still beauty amidst chaos; there is greatness amidst disaster. Yes there are things in this world that we, as minute humans, will never grasp. We will never comprehend why things ensue the way that they do, but instead of focusing on the unpleasant in this world, there is so much good to notice. A smile, the sound of laughter, a warm hug, a soft helping hand, a tall sturdy oak tree, a sunset, a child…these things are excellent and beautiful.

              I have learned that reaching out to those who are in need shouldn’t come from a source of anger, but instead from a place of love. My way, in the beginning, of approaching the madness in this world was not one of reverence or love but of pessimism and spite. To help another one must have peace and joy. As Diane Ackerman showed her readers, the Rabbi and the Orphanage Owner helped those in their community out of love for the people, not out of anger at the Nazi’s. Nowhere in their writings does one read the factual reality of life for Jews in occupied Poland, nor even the words “Nazi” or “German.” Instead, their mission was compassion—“to project the supernatural powers of kindness into the realm of speech, so that they might take on concrete, specific form.” That is the message: compassion for life and reverence for all will perpetuate goodness, even in the midst of inferno.

Reverence at Dachau

"As we visited the different areas--the bathing houses where people were gassed to death, the barracks where people were crammed like cattle, the lookout posts where women, children and men were shot to death, I started to feel overwhelmed. I felt a dropping sensation in my stomach, the hairs on my arms stood at attention, and a weight of sadness lingered on my shoulders. Why them? Why not me? Why did I want to come here? I could almost feel their grief and hear their cries. We were walking on sacred ground, on burial grounds of innocent lives; no one spoke above a whisper.  There was this hushed eeriness to Dachau, as if it were begging for the silence and peace that those killed had never known while there. All I heard was the wind, and the faint crunching of ground beneath my feet."

 

(Memorial Statue at Dachau)

"As we began approaching the end of the tour, I knew only two things were left on the agenda—the gas chambers and ovens. It had yet to occur to me that I was about to visit a place where human lives were treated like firewood and placed in ovens. Despite reading all the books, I had never grasped the thought that those people had stories, memories, families; they had lives with depth equal to mine and they were just as alive as I was. But the ideas finally hit my naive mind as we started making our way over. I contemplated turning around and not even going to see it because I was already really troubled at everything else that I had seen. Thankfully my aunt encouraged me to go see it “It was reality Megan, it is apart of what Dachau is, you need to see it to understand.” So I did. It was haunting on so many levels that I cannot explain, I tried to push the images of dead tangled bodies out of my mind but they would not leave. I stood in pure reverence for all of those people and I cried. I cried for the way that they had to experience life, I cried because of the injustice against humanity that happened right on the ground that I was standing. It was powerful and unbearably sad. Mothers, Fathers, Children, Innocence, Laughter, Happiness, Warm Beds, Full Stomachs, Love, Freedom…taken away, gone. How could anyone possibly create such evil against another?"

Himalyan People Showing Reverence

What is Reverence?

Have you ever experienced a moment where you felt completely lost in what you were viewing? An overwhelming feeling of awe? Where you could sit and stare for hours and not feel bored because the scenery is just so captivating. That to me is reverence.

Reverence doesn't have to be as majestic as the picture above, it can be as simple as a worm, a rainstorm, or even a smile. Reverence is around us; inviting us to stop, listen, and learn that we are not the center of this universe. These things humble us yet also make us realize that there is beauty admist a world of chaos.