Hi, my name is Wayne McDaniel, and the idea behind Daily AWE has been quietly forming in me for many years.

From as far back as I can remember, I have been drawn to God. I grew up attending a Presbyterian church in the suburbs of St. Louis, where faith was a natural part of my life. One of the earliest defining moments of my spiritual journey occurred at a church camp after sixth grade. Standing around a campfire, I dedicated my life to following God. I did not yet understand what that path would entail, but something in me knew it mattered.

A few years later, during high school, I encountered a Catholic on fire for God. At that time, I wasn’t even aware that a Catholic could be a Christian! But Joe drew me in, introduced me to prayer meetings and I eventually experienced being “baptized in the Spirit”—a profound and overwhelming awareness of God’s love.

I went on to attend Oral Roberts University, where I met my wife, Jude. After marrying, we moved to Lawrence, Kansas, started a family, and became deeply involved in our church as a leader and teacher. 

After several years, the tidy theological framework I had relied upon began to crack. What followed was a season of deep questioning—a kind of unraveling often described as a “dark night of the soul.” Many of the beliefs that once gave me certainty no longer held. Yet this breaking open, painful as it was, became a doorway rather than an ending. As rigid ideas fell away, something larger and more luminous began to emerge.

The deconstruction of my faith did not lead me away from God. It led me deeper—toward a more expansive understanding of the Divine, of creation, and of our shared humanity. I began to see that God is not confined to systems or language, but is Light itself—alive, relational, and present in all things.

Years earlier, before much of this transformation had fully unfolded, I encountered a book that quietly set the stage for what would come. The Roots of Christian Mysticism by Eastern Orthodox theologian Olivier Clément introduced me to the depth and richness of ancient Christian spirituality. Through the wisdom of early Church Fathers and mystics, I discovered that countless seekers before me had wrestled with the same questions—often with greater humility and insight than modern theology allows.

It was through this encounter with ancient wisdom that a vision began to take shape: to bring together the insights of both ancient and contemporary thinkers, not as arguments to be believed, but as invitations to be experienced.

Daily AWE was born from that vision.

These meditations are not meant to persuade or instruct, but to accompany—to help others notice the Light that is already present, to cultivate Awareness, to awaken Wonder, and to live more fully from Experience.

I continue this journey alongside you. I read these reflections. I sit with these questions. I practice these pauses. Daily AWE is not something I offer from a distance—it is a path I walk myself, one day at a time.