A Touch of Wonder
That's the title of a wonderful little book by Arthur Gordon that was aimed at helping us to rediscover the joys of living and it really is worth the reading. I pick it up now and then and read again one of its inspiring stories and come away refreshed. My suspicion is that (even physical) weariness comes on us more because we have begun to lose the sense of wonder than for any other reason.
Being tired after a hard day's work or an exhausting piece of pleasure is no surprise to us. In fact, we like it; like the thought of having worked ourselves into a well deserved feeling of "beat". But being tired of life makes you tired
in life. Many of us are physically weary because we're emotionally weary and I suppose the vast majority of us are emotionally weary because we're spiritually empty. We've made the rounds (within the limits of our ability) of the social life, we've "been there and done that" and feel there's nothing else for us but more of the same and more of the same simply has no appeal. If we were loaded with money or intellect or commodities like that maybe we could stave off the ennui but since so few of us have a lot of either we shrug and plod on.
That lovely old spiritual with the haunting tune offers a glimmer of hope. "If religion was a thing that money could buy/the rich would live and the poor would die." But that lovely word is about religion that's worth talking about; it's about religion that makes a difference; it's about religion based on wonder and vibrant hope. The "perpetual blahs" get more feeding from pathetic religion than we'd care to admit. Bland "speeches" from bland preachers and teachers leave us all bland. We think maybe if the classes were more dialogue and less "preaching" we'd feel better. But bland is still bland whether it comes from one mouth or twenty.
Weariness comes from the sickening sameness. Part of what we need is someone to make us wonder again; someone to show us the magic of life; someone to make us gasp at the glory that is Jesus Christ. We need men and women who will give us doctrine, rich and profound doctrine, rather than endless humane and saccharin little talks. A pox on all that! Give us a glimpse of the real Christ or get out of the pulpit or from behind the lectern! If we have a sense of the spell-binding nature of the God who showed himself as Jesus our sense of wonder will come back and we'll be able to rejoice in books like Gordon's without fear or recrimination.
©2004 Jim McGuiggan. All materials are free to be copied and used as long as money is not being made.
Many thanks to brother Ed Healy for allowing me to post from his website, the abiding word.com.