You're here, you're reading this. Not many people read this blog, but you are here reading these words, so I'll continue to write this post.
Christians are missing a step in their development. The shallowness of Christians that is no different from the general shallowness of the world (also the vanity, worldly pride, self-will, fear of man, respecting of persons and similar features that Christians share with everyone else in the world) is due to Christians missing a vital step in their development.
There are 4 states, or levels, of consciousness. I'll briefly outline them:
Sleep. This is head-on-pillow sleep. Yes, it is a state of consciousness. The lowest. Perhaps some coma states are lower, but I speak of normal human states.
Waking sleep. This is the next step up in consciousness. This is the state all human beings are born into and stay in for their entire lives. If you tell a human being they are in a state of waking sleep they will deny it, and they may even wake up a bit just from the question, but they will fall straight back into the state once you walk away. You can do all that is done in the world in a state of waking sleep. You can be a doctor, an engineer, an athlete, a musician, whatever. It can and is all done in a state of waking sleep. To be able to 'see' your own state of waking sleep you have to make an aim and effort to be more awake (that's basically an 'I am here' sense of yourself and your surroundings, but it's more than that too), then unconsciously fall back into waking sleep, then *remember* you had made an aim to be more awake, and at that moment you'll be able to see the difference. You'll be able to see that you had *fallen* back into a state of waking sleep and to then know, ah, that period of time I have little or no memory of is waking sleep. That's a practical way to see the state of waking sleep. Yet to be able to make an effort to be more awake requires development most people don't currently have. What the effort to be more awake leads to is this next state, or level, of consciousness:
Self-Consciousness. Or self-awareness combined with self-consciousness. It's become an insult by the pseudo intelligent to accuse someone of not being self-aware. We're all not self-aware. We can only have rare moments of self-awareness and self-consciousness, but the vast amount of our waking life is spent in blissful unawareness of ourselves. This third state of consciousness, self-consciousness, needs some things we aren't born with. It needs regeneration by the word and the Spirit for one. That may be stating too much, but I'll say it anyway. It needs a degree of an unburied conscience. Normally our conscience is buried. We didn't lose it at the Fall, but it became buried. To greater or lesser degree. It varies with individuals, and with stages of development. It needs being broken to some extent by the world. Your vanity, worldly pride, and self-will have to be broken in a real way. A painful experience, or process to live through. You also need a basic level of development - a balanced development - of the physical, emotional, and intellectual parts of your being. This involves engaging influences that are above the influences of the world (food, sex, money, mother-in-law). Influences like imaginative literature, history, art, music, philosophy, religion, science, athletics, performing arts. That is a big subject that I'll just leave there. The state of self-consciousness is painful for human beings. It is hard to get into it, and much harder to *stay* in it. Our limits for being there are very restricted. We suffer when we are there as well. And to extend our limits for being in this state we have to suffer more. Seeing ourselves as we truly are and have been can be a very painful experience. In different ways. Things that normally remain in darkness in our inner being begin to have light shined on them and we can experience great scandal and embarrassment and remorse and one epiphany after another of just how embarrassing and stupid and wicked we are and have been in our lives. It's not fun. We'd rather slink back into waking sleep. It's more comfortable. Now I'll move along so as to not write a treatise...
Objective-Consciousness. If self-consciousness is having an understanding and awareness of yourself, then objective-consciousness is having an objective understanding and awareness of the external world, basically including everything. Not God-like understanding, but what is potential for a human being. This understanding will involve being aware of laws and forces and languages - not French or Spanish, but languages such as the language of cosmoses and the language of music and higher visual languages and so forth. Much more as well. Everything. Knowledge that generally is not taught in worldly schools or institutions. A big part of objective-consciousness, though, is knowing the Plan of God. Or the History of Redemption. This is the basic material of objective-consciousness. This knowledge gives you objective understanding of who we are, why we are like we are, our state vis-a-vis what is higher than us, or more powerful than us, why the world is like it is, what forces are at work in the world, etc.
Now to the point of this post (read the title). Christians can get some understanding of the Plan of God and of basic biblical doctrine. We can get to know our true state (sin, for instance). We can understand the mechanics of the plan of redemption. All that. We need the Spirit to really be able to see it and accept it, but I'm just saying an average, everyday mainstream Christian can get that understanding. That is the material of objective-consciousness.
But what is missing with that everyday Christian (professor or pastor or church goer or whatever) is the third state of consciousness described above. Self-consciousness, or self-awareness. This necessary step in real development is skipped over. This is why you can listen to a very learned theologian, on-the-mark with biblical doctrine, yet he doesn't strike you as a very developed human being. I'm not saying people need to be wearing white robes and affecting postures of wisdom and holiness. But that third state of consciousness - self-consciousness, self-awareness - is rare. You actually may not be able to detect it in another human being, at least not superficially. If you spend some time around that person you may. But there is a general law that we can't know when another person has a higher level of development of being than ourselves. We can be honest and know if they *know more* than ourselves (hence we'll show deference to an engineering teacher). But we will rarely if ever grant another person as having a higher level of development of being than ourselves. Most fallen human beings won't even grant that to God Himself.
But anyway, without this third state of consciousness you will be just as shallow and worldly as any other person who doesn't know the plan of God will be. Really in very foundational and mundane ways.
So now you know what Christians - what you - are missing. It's been outlined above very clearly. Now seek wisdom, and with your wisdom get understanding. And remember: fear God alone. When you fear God alone you don't fear man. And when you don't fear man but only fear God it enables you to pursue and find wisdom.
