Living in Wonder and Awe

This summer in New Orleans has been great, but it has also been very difficult.  Even emotionally draining.  I’ve felt lost that for all the work I do for God, why aren’t I experiencing the joy of Christ?  The answer was revealed to me by Donald Miller in his book, Blue Like Jazz.  This book has been the talk of the Christian community for the last couple of years and it is easy to see why.  The storytelling and demeanor are very unique and captivating.  But consider this quote…

Too much of our time is spent trying to chart God on a grid, and too little is spent allowing our hearts to feel awe. By reducing Christian spirituality to formula, we deprive our hearts of wonder….I don’t think there is any better worship than wonder.

As I read this chapter on worship and wonder, I knew that this was the problem.  I had lost sight of the wonder of God and stopped living in awe of his goodness.  I immediately recalled Dangerous Wonder: The Adventures of Childlike Faith by Mike Yaconelli.  In it, Yaconelli describes the “wide eyed wonder” with which infants live.  That illustration is powerful.  Little babies are often staring at something so deeply and intently it looks like their eyes are going to pop out.  We can take a quick glance and notice all the details of our surroundings.  But not babies.  Everything is so new that they soak it every last detail.

Since reading that, I have spent these last few days trying to recapture the awe and wonder of my Lord.  His goodness and mercy surrounds me each day and I pray that I will always live in wide-eyed wonder of his love.