Sunday, November 14, 2010

Wonder

"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 want to tell you something about me that you may see as weakness.  I need wonder.  I know that death is coming.  I smell it in the wind, read it in the paper, watch it on television, and see it on the faces of the old.  I need wonder to explain what is going to happen to me, what is going to happen to us when this thing is done, when our shift is over and our kids' kids are still on the earth listening to their crazy rap music.  I need something mysterious to happen after I die.  I need to be somewhere else after I die, somewhere with God, somewhere that wouldn't make any sense if it were explained to me right now.

"At the end of the day, when I am lying in bed and know the chances of any of our theology being exactly right are a million to one, I need to know that God has things figured out, that if my math is wrong we are still going to be okay.  And wonder is that feeling we get when we let go of our silly answers, our mapped out rules that we want God to follow.  I don't think there is any better worship than wonder."
--Donald Miller, "Blue Like Jazz"

The hubby and I went to see Don Miller speak tonight at the Church of the Open Door in Maple Grove, MN.  It wasn't quite what I thought it was going to be...  He was there with three musicians - so it was more of a concert with a little bit of talking by Don, then worship, and Q & A.

But.  It was totally worth it.  After Don spoke, my hubby looked at me and said, "that makes perfect sense."  I knew he would "get" Don and "get" my excitement over the things I'm learning and discovering through Don.

It was a good night!

Things I am thankful for today:

1.  The mentors that work with my confirmands - and the good discussions they are having!
2.  All the people that make Sunday mornings happen at church!
3.  Stories starting to come in from the "Living a Better Story" experiment.
4.  Chatting with new friends.
5.  A two hour nap.  Uffda!
6.  Donald Miller.
7.  An interesting conversation with the hubby.
8.  Deciphering meaning behind songs in the car on the way home.
9.  A sleepy dog.
10.  Reading before bed...

1 comment:

Andrea, the little collector said...

I have a friend who recently told me about walking away from church and giving up on trying to know what happens in "the next life". I wasn't sure how to say that I don't KNOW either, but still believe. So, the part of the quote about our chances of getting heaven right being pretty slim, but not changing his need to seek wonder really resonates with me. Thanks for sharing!

p.s. Your snow looks AMAZING! Look at all those birds. :)

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