Wonder: A Spiritual Practice
“May we never lose our wonder…” goes the worship song, Wonder, by Bethel Music. Wonder. I’ve been pondering much about wonder, these days.
As a noun, wonder can be defined as, “a feeling of surprise mingled with admiration, caused by something beautiful, unexpected, or inexplicable.”
As a verb, it can defined in these ways:
1. A desire to be curious to know something
2. To feel doubt
Thanks, Google.
What role does wonder play in your life? What role does it play in your relationship with Jesus? I’ve been pondering that in my own life, lately.
We all wonder whether we realize it, or not. The question is, are we engaging in a worldly wonder? Or a renewed wonder? Romans 12:2 says, “Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - His good, pleasing, and perfect will.”
All too easy, does my mind slip into a worldly wonder if I’m not careful - the kind that has my mind spinning a million miles per hour, catastrophizing worst case scenarios, waiting for the other shoe to drop, problem solving solutions for situations that haven’t even occurred, and protecting myself from potential threats and dangers, whether or not they actually come to fruition. This too is a kind of wonder - the kind that the enemy would love nothing more than for us to entangle ourselves in.
But what then, is the antithesis of such wonder? A transformed wonder - one renewed by the taking captive our thoughts (as cited in 2 Corinthians 10:5). It’s the sort of wonder I imagine Mary experienced in the pondering of her own heart at thought of having brought the Messiah into the world. (“…but Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.” Luke 2:19, 2:51).
With Christmas season upon us, how does the knowledge of the birth of Christ impact the spiritual practice of wonder in our lives? Like Mary, does the coming of our Savior have our pondering and sense of wonder aimed toward hope?
Worldly wonder is relentless in its pursuit of our minds. We need only to watch the news for five minutes for worldly wonder get the foothold it needs in our thoughts.
What and how we wonder matters. So much so that I’ve began treating it as another spiritual practice in my own life. If my wonder has me feeling hopeless, disappointed, anxious, and fearful, it means I’ve come into agreement with a worldly wonder and must be quick to repent and realign it to look more like Mary’s.
Alternatively, I think Ephesians 3:20 serves as a model of what wonder in the life of a believer should look like (and has even become a bit of a life verse for me) - “Now to Him is able to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us…” That’s what transformed wonder looks like. A wonder fueled by hope. A wonder that knows no limits because we serve a limitless God. Wonder that invites us to imagine and to dream, and keeps us childlike before Jesus. This wonder, I have to keep coming back to over and over again. It’s not easy. In fact, it’s downright tedious at times to keep this discipline. But it’s the childlike wonder that enables us to inherit Jesus’ Kingdom (Matthew 18:1-3), and the very thing Advent season invites us into as believers.
So what are you wondering about, these days? What is fueling your wonder? Hope or fear? And though is may feel risky, how might the Holy Spirit be inviting you into deeper wonder, this holiday season? I invite you - join me in treating the act of wonder as a spiritual practice, and see what the Lord will do.