Caught up in Wonder Again

For Valentine's Day I got tickets to see a candlelit Taylor Swift concert - a string quartet played several songs from her discography, and I loved them all! But something happened when I was listening: I realised just how profoundly I loved Taylor Swift, and I realised just how good her music is. It was like re-discovering her for the first time, and took me right back to being in second grade and asking my parents "who's this girl on your iPod?" My attention was re-captivated, and my love reignited for an artist whom I've loved forever.

The same thing happened with me and Jesus this week.

I fear that often, when one has been a Christian for a while, you begin to lose your sense of wonderment when it comes to the Lord.

Yeah, He did miracles. Yeah, He died for my sins. Yeah, He loves me a lot.

All the things you hear from a pulpit, or read in the Bible, can gradually lose their awe-inspiring affect if we let them. Not because they are any less astounding, but because we have ceased to allow ourselves to be swept off our feet.

If the Lord is the romantic love interest with whom we star alongside in this movie of life - we've stopped playing the part.

We read our lines, and go through the motions, but the minute something goes wrong, or we grow stagnant in our faith, or we simply stop being intentional in our pursuit of Him - we cut the scene, exit stage left, and blame our co-star.

In a relationship with the Lord, there are rises and falls in moments of growth; there may be trials that make us feel infinitely closer to the Lord than we did moments before when things were "good", but as Christians, I challenge you to be ever persistent in your pursuit of the wonder. Get caught up in it again.

Drown yourself in the pull of His passionate love for you - and praise.

Ever since my injury, I have been in near constant companionship with the wonderful people in my life whom love me so well, and while my quality-time-loving self has savoured every moment of it, when I started driving again for the first time last week I noticed something: I was really listening to music again.

It wasn't something I ever made a conscious decision to stop doing, but when I began reflecting on it: my workout time, my car time, my home time, my school work time, etc. had all became relatively quiet when compared to the near constant stream of music I normally had going.

I, the girl who has always been surrounded by worship, had gradually dwindled in my moments of intentional song.

I was reading scripture or journaling every day, but taking time to simply sit in the quiet and be with the Lord, to let worship for Him flood my soul, I had stopped factoring in.

Often, when we stop *wondering* it's not intentional - no one tries to grow distance from marvelling at the Lord, it just happens.

Which is why we must be so intentional in purposing it in our hearts.

The first song to re-captivate my focus was For the Love by Andrew Ripp, and quite frankly, it was a song I had heard several times already on the radio, and I wasn't that impressed. It sounded just like every other Christian song on the radio, but then one day I got quiet, and it struck me:

"I saw mercy Mercy seated where the judge should be Was guilty Guilty in getting out of jail free

How could it be, I didn't get the love I deserved And the only thing He wanted was my heart in return And every time I think about every time I thought was the end I'm caught up in wonder again"

Mercy - seated where the judge should be. Guilty - but getting out of jail for free. Getting the love we never deserved, for the simple cost of our hearts?

Every. Single. Time that we think the Lord is the simple thing that we know inside and out - we can be caught up in wonder again.

Because His Word is alive, and breathing, and active. And so is His Spirit!

Because our God is risen! Because He is perfect and we are not, and in a world so obsessed with perfection and hiding our flaws, how can we not be eternally captivated by this man who knew no flaws? By this God who not only loves perfectly, but IS perfect love?!

When that registered, I just started getting choked up in the car. Because the God of Abundance Grace shares this grace with me? Me? How can I not praise that?

This theme continued with the song Eden by Benjamin Hastings:

"Oh the vast extent of my regrets, and all my deepest fears, were buried in a garden, where you wept in blood and tears

For You climbed a hill not Yours to climb They thought Your fate was sealed, for the serpent tried to take you down, but he only bruised Your heel

See the empty grave is overgrown, and the earth begins to heal, for the enemy is overthrown, and the darkness finally yields

So now I don't owe a thing to death, should ever he appear, for death can only borrow breath, no longer can he steal

Isn't it just like You, to turn it all around for good"

I'll be fully transparent: just looking over the lyrics of this song to find a quote that would sum up the magnitude of what Jesus did for us on that cross, I began to weep.

"They thought your Fate was sealed for the serpent tried to take you down, but he only bruised Your heel"

"I don't owe a thing to death, should ever he appear, for death can only borrow breath, no longer can he steal"

Wow. THAT is my God - victorious over death, justice seeking, triumphant in battle - the Man who Crushes the Serpent with His Heel.

For through Him, no longer do we face the sting of death, but rather have abundant life in Him and Him alone that offers peace beyond all measure, that surpasses all understanding, forgiveness of our transgression, and eternity to praise Him.

Seems pretty great, doesn't it?

But then! It got better!

Yesterday, while listening to a women's bible study, they referenced the scripture of the woman and the well (John 4). And while beginning to unpack this story, the leader began going over the cultural significance of this well that the Samaritan women would get water from, and since I've been reading through the Bible for a second time, and finished Genesis fairly recently, I was able to remember Jacob giving his son Joseph the land on which the well was built, which he acquired in Genesis 33.

When reading that scripture in Genesis, it doesn't seem all that significant - I mean, Jacob was promised land, building a well or any other structure seems natural doesn't it? But then it struck me:

God is big enough to not only know, but orchestrate hundreds of years apart, the creation of well that was seemingly insignificant, to be the one and only location that Jesus could encounter this Samaritan woman. That he went out of his way to cross paths with. Who would only go to the well at a certain time of day. Who was the only person with that story. And God lined it all up *just so* she could have this encounter.

So that she could have her life radically changed.

So that she could go out and radically change the lives of others.

And we don't even know her name.

Because she, is us. She is me. She is you. She is every single one of us because God is big enough, bold enough, powerful enough to make every thing in our lives *just so* that we may come into a unique, and beautiful, and life changing encounter with Him.

I had never felt so small, humble, and loved in my life.

So yes, I believe you could say my wonder has been re-captivated.

When we purpose in our hearts availability, when we open our ears to listen, when we seek the small and insignificant details out - we can begin to re-open our hearts to the wonder that accompanies every single thing that the Lord has ever done, and get infinitely caught up in it.

If you have lost your sense of childlike wonder, let me help you with a starting point: begin reading in scripture, and the moment you come across something and think "hm that's an odd detail to include" - chase after it. Translations, commentaries, cultural information - all wonderful keys to unlock an even deeper love story than our human brains can even begin to fathom. This has become a favourite pass-time of mine, and has opened the door for many wonderful spiels on the beauty of the Lord and His love for us - because we serve an intentional God. A creative God, who invented the concept of intellect and problem-solving and depth, and is the answer to obtaining more of it.

We serve a wonderful God, worthy of wonderment.

Worthy of praise, and captivation, and adoration.

And it's a feeling every one of us can obtain.

It is wonderment we can pursue and a God worthy of our passion.

Here's to getting caught up....

-Emma

"Be fearless in pursuit of what sets your soul on fire."