Step 3: Awareness

It's important to remember the first two steps because we want to build them into our everyday lives. It's not like, "Ok, I completed the Emotionally Present Lesson. I'm ready to move on"! For the rest of our lives, we will continue to grow in our capacity and desire to be honest with God.

Our third step is to become aware that God is at work. Instead of drifting through life, we want to be alive to God and all he is doing!

This isn't an innovative idea! In the fifteenth century, Ignatius of Loyola was teaching children to reflect, every evening, on how God had been active in their life that day. This is a habit we can all develop to experience spiritual growth.

As you read through the Gospels, one of the surprising and sometimes even humorous themes is that most people don't understand Jesus. They don't understand who he is, what he is teaching, or how to make sense of his miracles. What is revealed through these interactions is their spiritual blindness.

In Terrence Malick's film The Tree of Life, there's a moment where Mr. O'Brien confesses, "I wanted to be loved because I was great. A big man. I'm nothing. Look: the glory around us, the trees, the birds. I lived in shame. I dishonored it all and didn't notice the glory. A foolish man."

It's a moment that grabs your heart. It's a sad part of the human condition: not noticing that we're surrounded by glory. Have you ever gone through an entire day without noticing God? Does everything seem ordinary—or filled with splendor?

In John 8, Jesus makes a momentous statement: "I am the light of the world. Anyone who follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life."

When we see Jesus, the Light of the world, he opens our eyes to the light of life. But that raises the question: Where is God working? What is God doing?

Spiritual growth happens when we orient ourselves to who God is and what God is doing.

Here's a simple framework for gaining awareness:

God is working in us, among us, through us, and around us.

• In us: The Holy Spirit is making us like Christ so that we can glorify God whatever we do, wherever we are.
• Among us: Christianity is not a single-player video game. Through our interactions with one another, God is showing us how to love and care for one another.
• Through us: God works through us as we participate in God's mission to announce the love of Christ to the world.
• Around us: We don't carry the burden of the whole world by ourselves. God is doing far more than we can ask or imagine.

Our third step to God is to be awakened to what God is already doing.