My favorite place to be is standing with toes in the sand looking out to the vast ocean. I would love nothing more than to live right on the beach, to wake up each morning and look out to the ocean as I listen to the waves crash against the shore. Every year when our family visits the beach we talk about how much we want to move there. But the response we get always shocks me.
Talk to many beach locals and they all say the same thing. They haven't been to the beach in months, some even say years. Years! I cannot begin to imagine living minutes from the beach and not visiting regularly. I day dream of moving to the beach and spending every single morning sitting ocean side as I have quiet time with God, then once a week having our family clear the calendar and do nothing but play in the waves and sand. Then there are the parties I dream of. Birthday parties, anniversary parties, holidays, you name it and we will party at the beach. Yet here the locals are telling us that was too once their dream. Until they moved to the beach. Now, they just don't go. It's there and it's no big deal. They lost the wonder of it.
Sometimes I wonder if we have lost the wonder, the awe, of God. We bring our needs to our church or family or friends asking for prayer. We get everyone we know on board with storming heaven on our behalf. Or we do so for someone else. Then we hear the answer to pray or how God provided and our response is an easy, simple "praise God" or "God is good." That's it. We don't really rejoice. We don't even really get excited! It's like it's the locals and the beach, it was right there, it's good it happened, but no big deal. What we should be doing is rejoicing! Shouting from the rooftops how good and mighty and powerful and wonderful our God is!
I love this scene from the movie WarRoom when Miss Clara hears the answer to a request she has been praying for. Take a moment to watch.
I love the way Miss Clara first puts the enemy back in his place! Then she rejoices and gives thanks. Finally she walks off singing praises. She is so excited! It's like she knew God could do it, she had complete faith, yet she rejoices as if it were a big surprise. Isn't that the way it should be? Shouldn't we rejoice and give thanks? Shouldn't we sing His praises? Why do we answer with a simple "Praise God"? We need to shout it out how good God is!
What about our every day living? We have become so used to the fact that the sun rises in the morning. It's no big deal. Oh we may occasionally pause and say how pretty it is, but when was the last time you really rejoiced over the beauty of the sunrise or glorious colors of the sunset? When was the last time you were in awe over how God created our bodies to work or the love He poured into the pages of the Bible?
It's time to stop taking things for granted, to stop being so used to it all that we lose the wonder of who God is and all He has and is doing.
The words of this song sum it up beautifully. Wide eyed and mystified, may we be just like a child, staring at the beauty of the King. May we never lose our wonder. Listen to this song today as you let the wonder of how truly amazing and miraculous God is.
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Yes! Let's stop being so "used to it all"! G.K. Chesterton has a great quote about the "childlike" wonder of God in making the sun rise each day. "Do it again!" But we humans are much "older" than our Father, since we grow tired and complacent in the midst of all the wonder.
ReplyDeleteAmen! Such a great reminder. I love the verse in Acts that says they were filled with awe and wonder. That's how I want to be. May we never lose our wonder.
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