If you want to irritate me, just start to 'explain' the difficult experiences that surround us. The preachers with booming voices who declared that the attacks that cost 3000 lives on September 11, 2001 were 'the judgment of God on America,' make me crazy. Are they so sure that they feel that they can speak for God? Those who tell me that a death from cancer is the result of a 'lack of faithful prayer' on the part of the extended family or church drive me to distraction. Did God speak to them in an audible voice to make His plan known? Those who are so certain they know intricacies of the will of the Lord are, to me anyway, often guilty of a terrible kind of arrogance. There is a phrase from the Word that comes to mind - "Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience." (1 Timothy 3:9, KJV) How can we, with our limited perspective, begin to grasp the complexities of the purposes of God?
With the writer of Scripture I declare with great certainty - "I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day." (2 Timothy 1:12, NIV) Because I know the loving Father, I am able to relinquish the need to know the 'why' and live with the mysteries that surround me. I was privileged to stand with Gabby and her family as she made her way from earth to Heaven yesterday. The death of a young mother seems so pointless, her suffering so intense. There is a temptation to make sense of the ordeal with platitudes and simplistic explanations, but to do so, is to profane the holy! The truth is that what God is doing is shrouded in the magnificence of His sovereign will and may only become clear in eternity. Our faithful trust defeats the Enemy's attempts to make her death a source of disbelief and magnifies the glory of God.
I am learning to experience 'wonder' more often these days. I have lived my life as a practical man, valuing getting thejob done. I feel best about myself and life when a task iscompleted. It's not a bad trait and helps me to plow through a lotof work, but I am realizing that being so focused on 'work' can keepme from experiencing another dimension of life. I have spent so manydays of my 5 decades on this globe focused on planning the nextmeeting, solving the current problem, writing Sunday's sermon,making sure my family was fed, clothed, and housed -- that I missed much of the beauty of being 'in the moment.' More and more, it is enough for me to simply know, "God is here, with us, now!" The wonder of His Presence removes the need for control, for explanations.
Part of wonder is allowing for the unexplained, the mystery - living without the need to make God fit into our expectations, and loving Him in the bad times as much as in the good ones.Worship and wonder are closely related. We will sense God'sPresence more readily if and when we learn to 'wonder.' The dryness of much in the practice of Christianity is the result of reducing worship to theological concepts and empty liturgy, hurrying through the forms without allowing for the Spirit to touch us, trying to make the 'wonder-full' truths that the Bible tells using the stories of the works of God into neat packages of doctrine. Christians do not have much time for mystery these days.
We want explanations! We want proofs! We want to know howit works and what the benefits are! "Preacher," we demand, "get me saved. Make me good. Give me three steps to being better at ...." But life isn't that simple. There is an awesome mystery that God allows to exist around us which we can only appreciate if we will allow ourselves to wonder.Believer, surrender to the worship of the One who says, "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." (Isaiah 55:9, NIV) Recover the wonder! It will cause you to serve God with morepassion, to love Him more deeply.
Ponder this passage as you move through this day.
Isaiah 29:13-14 (NKJV) Therefore the Lord said:"Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths And honor Me with their lips, But have removed their hearts far from Me,And their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of men,
Therefore, behold, I will again do a marvelous work among this people,
A marvelous work and a wonder; For the wisdom of their wise men shall perish,And the understanding of their prudent men shall be hidden."
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