From the book Dangerous Wonder by Mike Yaconelli
"We are in a battle between dullness and astonishment. The most critical issues facing Christianity is not abortion, pornography, disintegration of the family, moral absolutism, MTV, drugs, racism, sexuality and school prayer. The critical issue today is dullness. We have lost our astonishment. The "Good News" is no longer good new, it's okay news. Christianity is no longer life changing, it is life enhancing. Jesus doesn't change people into wided eyed radicals anymore, he changes them into nice people."
Unfortunately sometimes we don't even become nice people.
This is about something bigger than we have known or experienced. It transcends earthy politics regardless of what nation we find ourselves in. It so transcends what our culture deems important and "must-have". It so transcends a Sunday morning gathering, whatever shape it might be. It so transcends our trust in bringing about peace through violence.
This is about Jesus coming close and changing our perspective to that of our Father.
Our Father, which art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy Name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done,
in earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive them that trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation;
But deliver us from evil:
[For thine is the kingdom, The power, and the glory,
For ever and ever.] Amen.
That sounds like Dangerous Wonder to me.
2 comments:
I hear what you are saying Kent but here is a difficulty that I'm currently trying to disentangle myself from. The prayer you quoted, even though I know it was from Jesus' own lips, long ceased to have any sort of wonder attached to it. I'm middle-aged and I've probably heard and read references to this 100's of times. Same goes for a whole range of subjects/doctrines from the scriptures.
I'd just like to see the reality of Jesus who is in all of us expressed/modelled in a tangible, touchable reality and not have to read about it. I have no answers on how to reclaim that wonder.
Thanks for continuing on in your thoughtful explorations pushing towards the Kingdom in this age.
Ian, here is what I am experiencing. This prayer really never meant much to me before either. That has changed. This prayer covers about all we need to cover in prayer.
What I am seeing, is my life (everyone's life),has become so complicated that this prayer doesn't even come close in our minds at least, to covering it all. It's a dull exercise.
The disentangling from nonessential things (things I had grabbed that God had not given) that I have walked thorough, has opened up a sense of wonder that is hard to explain. This quote from the book Dangerous Wonder, I lived, but now I am experiencing a renewing. An awakening. The wonder of the Lord's Prayer is something I have never known before.
We have complicated the message of Jesus and the kingdom to a point that it is unintelligable. For me today, this prayer that is so simple, is so profound.
The idea of having our imaginations recaptured I believe can not happen until we come to a place of brokenness by realizing the things we have grabbed that he has not given, have dulled our spiritual sense to where following him becomes unintelligable.
Post a Comment