116 | Transcending Woke (Part 1)
Date: May 23, 2022
Welcome back to the podcast!!!
Today we're starting a short series of episodes - all focused on the concept of being "woke."
Minute of Transparency: All Figured Out
Today's Topic: Transcending Woke (Part 1)
Exponential Change
Get Woke!
Set Your Alarm Clock
// 1. EXPONENTIAL CHANGE
I don't know about you - but I've changed a LOT over the past 4 years.
And I don't just mean changes like:
I've gotten older
I've gotten more gray
My vision is going south
I almost need to carry readers with me
Or the fact that I've slowed down a bit
These are changes that happen incrementally. Slow changes over time. Changes that we don't like - but we all understand come with the aging process.
But. that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking Exponential Change.
As in: "I think I've changed more in the past 4 years, than I did in the previous 30 or 40 combined..."
That's right - changes that rival those in the early years.
Remember those changes? From birth to 18? Holy crap! That was Exponential Change for sure. Going from baby formula to full grown adult in 18 years!
Now boil all of those changes down into a 4 year period of time and that's the way I feel about the last 4 years in my life...
This Exponential Change started in 2018 when the church I was working for let me go without warning. For no reason - other than:
We're going in a different direction
We're restructuring the department
We're streamlining...
And once we do there won't be a position left for you
Oh ya - and we're letting your friend go as well - the other "mature" team member who makes a decent salary
Once you two are gone we will have a bunch of young, fun team members that we can pay much less
Sorry. Not sorry...
And then - a year later - I got to watch my wife walk through the same thing...at the same church...
Let this be a life lesson for you... It may not be the best thing for you, and your spouse to work for the same company - much less the same church...
At the end of the day - they did the same thing to her that they had done to me
She was treated the same way I was treated, by the team leading her department
She was let go by haughty, self righteous, and patriarchal leaders because she was a strong, independent, female thinker - something that is very threatening to the traditional church structure
On some level, you just can't make this stuff up!
And yet - there we were living it out in real life...
As you can imagine - it took a while for both of us to work through this:
From a logistical standpoint - living in Southern California - you don't last long without good paying jobs
But for me, that was easier to handle than the other stuff - the cognitive and emotional stuff
Second-guessing your value
Feelings of abandonment
The trauma associated with the abrupt and cold way things were handled
And the ripple effect caused because the church isn't just your job:
It's also your church - where you have been growing spiritually
On some level it becomes your family
Your friends typically attend the same church
If you're in a small group - it's through your church
And most likely it's where your kids are plugged in
For Tammy and me, this opened a can of worms:
I began questioning myself
My supposed "calling" to work in ministry
I questioned my abilities, my qualifications and whether I was actually good enough
Self esteem reached an all-time low
For Tammy - it was the connections that were immediately changed
The loss of a support group
Difficulties our kids were having because we no longer had a connection to the church
And then there were the spiritual questions I wrestled with:
How had I so blindly followed the leadership of this church?
Why didn't I see it coming?
Why was I so trusting?
Why did I view the leadership in the church as more moral than leaders in the marketplace?
And if I had fallen for all of this - what else had I fallen for?
Did I even want to be part of the church any longer?
As I was struggling to find clarity in this area, along came the Global Pandemic:
Masks, social distancing, shutdowns, working from home, inability to travel, families kept from each other, social activities stopped
And that was just related to COVID-19...
Then came the riots, looting and protests
The very public incidents of police brutality and the racism and social justice issues that took center stage
Then came the political polarization - which we'll talk a lot more about in following episodes
Now, I probably don't need to go any further - because we all lived through it - in fact we're still living through it!
So I assume I'm not the only one that has experienced Exponential Change since March of 2020
Next up: About 1 year into the pandemic, a podcast was released called: The Rise & Fall of Mars Hill
Which was absolutely crazy in terms of the timing
I had seen advertisements for it, and my wife told me I should listen to it - so I did
One episode in and I was hooked...
I latched on to that podcast and didn't let go
I immediately resonated with it - because of what Tammy and I had been through at our church
For me - it was like ripping the Band-Aid off a fresh scrape
Like pulling stitches out of a partially healed wound
It made me sad, it made me angry and yet like a deer in the headlights, I couldn't look away
It brought so many things to light - and asked so many good questions:
Not just questions about Mars Hill, and the narcissistic leader that ran it into the ground
But questions about other large churches and the narcissistic leaders running them
But it didn't stop there - it also asked hard questions of us
It suggested that we, the people attending these churches, may have played a pivotal role in it all
Because we provided the energy behind these narcissistic leaders
We created the environments that allowed them to ascend to unhealthy levels of power
We jumped on the bandwagon, and consumed the online content - which inflated the numbers and the egos of these leaders
So which came first? The narcissistic leader? Or the people wanting someone to worship?
And finally, we have the Russian invasion of Ukraine:
Yet another thing to destabilize the world
Another thing that makes us question the sanity of people in the world
Another thing that brings the Controversy between God and Satan from the spiritual realm into the physical realm
Front and center - for the entire world to see
Evil being done on a global stage in front of a universal camera lens
And at the same time - the world (or at least the US) is thrown into an economic crisis:
High gas and food prices
Supply chain issues
Crashing stock market
And continued political polarization over the best way to fix these problems
All that to say - this has been my backdrop for the Exponential Changes I've seen in my life. And I'm sure my story is just one of many.
The climate, the culture, the world right now is ripe for change. And change can take us in one of two directions:
Growth: In that many of us have changed in positive ways - deconstructing the past and re-evaluating our future. Refocusing our world view in order to be different, better on some level
Deterioration: In that many of us have gone backwards - falling into more rigid thinking. Unhealthy world views, controlling behavior, living out of fear or anxiety. And possibly creating a state of inaction - choosing to do nothing because it is so overwhelming
For me, going through this period of Exponential Change has forced me to rethink life on many levels. Call it a midlife crisis, an existential crisis, a spiritual awakening or the process of deconstruction. I don't exactly know how to define it - but it's a very real thing. It's been fairly invasive - consuming my thoughts for the past 4 years.
So over the next few episodes I'm going to dig a bit deeper into that. Do some personal assessment, and figure out how best to define it.
// 2. GET WOKE!
So what does the Minute of Transparency, and my whole rant on Exponential Change have to do with the topic for today: Transcending Woke?
Great question...so let me start with this:
I believe that any level of "woke-ness" (if that's even a word...) Any level of "woke-ness" I experience - has only been possible because of the experiences I've had over the past 4 years.
In other words - The past 4 years are the foundation upon which:
I've been forced to think outside the box
I've been forced to re-evaluate some of my core beliefs
I've been forced to take a more in-depth look at the life of Jesus and what He really stood for
And ultimately - the new world view I've been trying to put together in order to make sense of it all
But is this what it means to be "woke"?
I'm not sure - so let's investigate it together...
Now, I'm sure we've all heard the term "woke." In fact it's so popular it's taken on a life of its own. Very similar to the "F" word. You know the one - the big one. The "F" bomb. The word to top all words...
I say that because we've figured out how to apply the "F" word in just about every scenario - right? As a noun, a verb, an adjective, an adverb, a conjunction, a preposition and an interjection. Even as an auxiliary verb - whatever the heck that is?!
And we're getting close to doing the same with the word "woke." It's become everything from a noun - describing a type of person - to a derogatory term used by someone who uses it to slam another person for their poorly held beliefs.
It's not hard to see that this whole idea around being "woke" has taken center stage.
So let's start with a few definitions.
From dictionary.com:
It is most often used as an adjective, and is considered a Slang term.(often used in the phrase "stay woke")
"Having or marked by an active awareness of systemic injustices and prejudices, especially those related to civil and human rights"
In light of incidents of police brutality, it’s important to stay woke
He took one African American history class and now he thinks he’s woke
"Aware of the facts, true situation, etc."
The moon landing was staged. Stay woke!
A tomato is a fruit and not a vegetable. Stay woke.
Next, let's look at the way Wikipedia.com views it:
"Woke is an English adjective meaning "alert to racial prejudice and discrimination" that originated in African-American Vernacular English. Beginning in the 2010s, it came to encompass a broader awareness of social inequalities such as sexism, and has also been used as shorthand for left-wing ideas involving identity politics and social justice, such as the notion of white privilege and slavery reparations for African Americans."
Next, nationalworld.com explains it like this:
"Woke nowadays refers to being aware or well informed in a political or cultural sense, especially regarding issues surrounding marginalized communities - it describes someone who has “woken up” to issues of social injustice."
And finally, vox.com breaks it out from a polarized, political perspectives:
"On the left, to be “woke” means to identify as a staunch social justice advocate who’s abreast of contemporary political concerns - or to be perceived that way, whether or not you ever claimed to be “woke” yourself."
"On the right, “woke” - like its cousin “canceled” - bespeaks “political correctness” gone awry, and the term itself is usually used sarcastically. At the Republican National Convention in August, right-wing Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) scolded “woketopians,” grouping them together with socialists and Biden supporters, as though the definition of a “woketopian” was self-evident."
So there you have it - a few different takes on what it means to be "woke."
To me - this is a good start - but in a minute I'm going to put a little twist on it.
Because to me - there is a worldly way to look at being "woke" and a spiritual way.
The definitions we just walked through are very worldly. The way to world - and the way people in politics view it.
But I believe there are people who are getting "woke" spiritually.
And for me - this started around 4 years ago...thanks to the Exponential Changes I've gone through.
So does that mean I moved from right to left?
Does that mean I dropped my conservative values in exchange for liberal ones?
Nope - because to me - this change was spiritual - not political.
And therefore nothing to do with the left, or being liberal.
If I'm truly "woke" spiritually - the way I'm describing it - I've simply re-assessed my world view and found it wanting. I've recognized that there is something more in life, something of greater value. Being "woke" in this context is nothing more than Transcending Human. Rising above the Human Condition.
It's determining the right thing to do in any situation, and choosing that over the alternative.
// 3. SET YOUR ALARM CLOCK
So before we dive into this - let me just start by asking you where you're at on the "woke" scale?
If we're using my scale for being "woke" spiritually...
How would you rate yourself on a scale from 1 to 10? With 10 being fully "woke?"
For me - I would feel narcissistic if I gave myself anything over a 6 or 7!
Because for me, it's so new, so fresh at this point. For the past 3-4 years I feel like I've been drinking from a fire hose. And dealing with change on that level in a very short amount of time is NOT easy. It goes against everything I thought was important - like happiness, comfort, safety and security.
So where are you right now? Have you been on the same journey as me? Or does this all sound like Greek to you?
Are you asking yourself, "What is wrong with this guy? He seems a little off. A little fragile emotionally."
But if that's you - if you're listening to this and you have no idea what I'm talking about - it might be time to set your alarm clock.
Why do we set alarms?
Typically, we set an alarm at night - when it's dark and we're heading to sleep. Because we know that if we don't we may not get up on time.
The alarm is meant to awaken us out of a deep sleep.
Hence why I'm using it as an illustration.
Back to the Minute of Transparency...where I talked about times in my life where I thought I had it all figured out.
Looking back - I didn't have it all figured out - in fact I was taking a nap. I was sleeping. And it took something big to wake me up.
My alarm clock has been going off for the last 4 years. All the changes, the loss of my job, the global pandemic, the war in Ukraine, the issues seen in the church today - all sounding the alarm to wake up and smell the coffee.
If you aren't hearing the alarm at your house - maybe it's time you bought one and set it.
So someday soon it will go off and remind you that there are things you've been sleeping through.
What are those things you ask?
Over the next two episodes I hope to flesh some out for us.
To get very practical about what it means to get "woke" spiritually.
What it looks like for each of us individually, what it looks like for our families and what it might look like in our community, state or country even.
Let's Land the Plane:
This week ask yourself these questions:
Have you ever felt like you have it all figured out?
Do you still feel that way now?
If not - what changed your view on life?
Are you "woke?"
If so - are you "woke" in the worldly sense of the word? Focused on a liberal political agenda?
Or do you feel you're being "woke" to a new spiritual reality?
Where are you at today?
Are you on the "woke" train - just learning more and more as you go?
Or do you need to set an alarm so you don't sleep through the next 5 years of your life?
Okay everyone! Thanks for hanging with us again this week. That was so much fun for me! I hope you're along for the ride 🙂
I've split this content into three parts - so maybe I should call it the "Woke Trilogy" or something fun like that.
Anyway - I'd love to have you back next week for Part 2 of Transcending Woke. We're going to talk about this thing called "The Awakening" and what that's all about.
Until then, have a great week, stay woke, and and as always, keep Transcending Human!