From the Chaplains

This Sunday is the Festival of the Winds at Bondi Beach. The Festival of the Winds is held each year and celebrates spring with a spectacular display of kites of all shapes and sizes spread along the beach.

As a local resident I have been lucky enough to attend for several years. Last year my daughter and I made the spontaneous decision to go on the Ferris Wheel that was temporarily installed near the pavilion. Normally I am a bit afraid of these things, but this time I decided to ignore my fear and jump on board. We climbed in, the gate was locked by the attendant and off we went slowly soaring high above Bondi Beach.

It was spectacular.

The ocean glimmered beneath us. The sand spread out like an arc of the golden sun. The kites, some of them as big as whales, became small pulsating spots. The thousands of people were pinpricks of colour as small as a grain of sand.

As we sat there suspended above it all I felt totally overwhelmed with awe at the beauty of what I was seeing. It allowed me to see myself and the world that I am a part of differently, and to reflect on what that meant in my day to day. 

The Cambridge Dictionary describes ‘awe’ as ‘a feeling of great respect sometimes mixed with fear or surprise’.

‘Awe’ is also a word often used in the Bible. Sadly though, it is all too often translated simply as ‘fear.’ So much so that ‘fear of the Lord’ has become a common phrase. I worry that this limited translation has done us a disservice over the many years of use of these words. In translating the word ‘awe’ as only fear we have taught generations of people to fear God, and therefore to fear the teachings of faith.

But imagine if we reframed this.

If we stopped fearing God, and the teachings of faith but instead but approached God with curiosity and wonder? Imagine if we took this further to approach all things, particularly those that things that are different or unfamiliar in this way?

With an openness to discover something unexpected and wonderful when we approach the unknown despite our hesitation?

What might you find? What would you allow yourself to discover?

I know that in overcoming my fear of the Ferris wheel that day gave me a view of God and the world that I did not imagine. An ‘awesomeness’ that was beyond my expectation. My prayer for you is that you find the same. That you put aside your fear and invite possibility in the things that you would normally hesitate to experience. I promise that in doing so you may just discover something spectacular.

Danielle Hemsworth-Smith

College Chaplain