“Among the many things that religious tradition holds in store for us is a legacy of wonder. The surest way to suppress our ability to understand the meaning of God and the importance of worship is to take things for granted.”

                 -Abraham Joshua Heschel

It is so easy to slip into religious lethargy and lose our sense of wonder, our appreciation for the greatness of God, what He has created and this life He has given us. Last week I presented two ways in which we can recapture wonder in our lives. Here are the second two:

Approach every day as a spiritual adventure
We can see Gods fingerprints everywhere if we are willing to pay attention. Each day is a gift, we are not promised another. What would life look like if we saw each day as an adventure— the success, the failure, the hurt, the love, the joy, the pain— each day an ugly-beautiful adventure.”

About ten years ago I hiked Pikes Peak with some of my friends. It was a glorious experience! It was filled with the unexpected. We began our hike on a beautiful Colorado day. At the base, the temperature was ninety degrees and sunny. The trip was hard. A lot of incline and we were carrying heavy backpacks. By the time we reached the halfway point, it was raining and in the fifties, a drastic change in weather. We camped that night and continued our adventure the next day, ready for the unexpected.

The final part of the hike before you reach the summit of Pikes Peak is known as the “16 golden stairs”. The name refers to a series of steep switchbacks. At this point on the trip, the air is thin; we were almost at fourteen thousand feet. I would take a few steps then need to catch my breath. It was hard, and at moments, I did not think I would make it. When I got to the top, the view was beautiful! The hard part of the adventure had been worth it…then is started snowing, hard. We had to navigate our way back down in a blizzard, in July. When we got to the bottom, I thought…wow…what a ride! Life can be like that. We can focus on the negative and miss the beauty, which is often surrounded by hardship.

What would our lives look like if we lived and believed that God is sovereign and had a plan for our lives filled with purpose and goodness in the good and the bad?

It’s time to move away from simplistic formulas to a life that is filled with unpredictable moments and a spiritually that is mysterious and yet filled with confidence and hope because of the relationship with have with Jesus.

Nurture curiosity
As we grow older, many of us become so serious.  We lose our curiosity, some of us stop learning and get “stuck in our ways.” I was the chaperone for my son’s trip to the Milwaukee Public Museum a couple of weeks ago. As we made our way through the exhibits, we stopped at the live bug display. One of the volunteers was holding a Madagascar hissing cockroach. I was fascinated! I even held it and let it crawl around on my hand. As I looked at this strange creature, I was filled with curiosity. “I wonder why God made this?”. God designed us to be inquisitive. Allow your sense of curiosity to drive your life and faith.

This may mean taking the time to “be still” and reflect on your life, on the creation of God and what the world He has created has to offer in its simple complexity. It means finding those moments of sacred silence and holy wonder, contemplating this amazing world that God has created with all its curiosities and mysteries.

Step back and recapture the wonder.