Wondering about the Wonderful...

This morning I sat down with some coffee and opened my Bible to 1 Timothy 6. I knew that I had read this passage before, as I saw highlighted verses and a few notes in the margins... But the freshness of this fall morning reminded me that there is always something fresh and new I can find in the Word of God. It seems that no matter how many times we read the same sections of God's Word, He always has something new to teach. I like to think that it gives Him great joy to reveal something we have never understood and to watch us approach His love letter with a desire to dig deeper. I don't always enter my quiet times with an attitude this thirsty, but when I do, I always come away asking how I could ever settle for anything less! God's Word is just SO satisfying!

And that leads me to what struck me the most about what I read today. As a whole, the passage reminded me that as someone touched and changed by the incredible grace of Jesus, my life should be drastically different from the "norms" of the world. If my life makes total sense to someone who doesn't know Jesus, then something needs to change. It was a great reminder of what I should be pursuing with my whole heart...

More specifically, verses 11 and 12 grabbed my heart...

"Pursue a righteous life--a life of wonder, faith, love, steadiness, courtesy. Run hard and fast in the faith. Seize the eternal life, the life you were called to, the life you so fervently embraced..."

The fact that the life of someone who claims Christ should be marked by WONDER jumped out of the page. I was struck with the realization of something I have always known: my heart is prone to severe dissatisfaction! I am so easily distracted by everything I don't have, can't get, don't understand, can't do, shouldn't want, etc... The point is just that WONDER in this context seems to imply an insatiable thirst for Jesus. It implies that God created our hearts with threads of awe and appreciation for WHO HE IS, and nothing else. It shows that our hearts will never be satisfied until we stop and wonder at the deep and beautiful complexity of what He has made. And it shows that unless we have the desire to notice the millions of traces of His goodness that He leaves, we will miss out on something incredibly good. Our hearts were made to worship-- to wonder with authenticity about the unique complexity of what God created. And they were made to enjoy the wonderfully simplistic ways He uses to reveal this quality of Himself to us.

What I mean is that everyday happenings like the sunrise or sunset are so very simple, but when you stop and truly take a look at what is before you, there is no way that your heart doesn't WONDER at who could create such an incredible piece of art solely out of air... My heart jumps every time I see the strikingly vivid colors of the sunrise in the morning. Something in me stirs at the sound of thunder and the smell of fall. I can't help but feel without a doubt that there must be something more to life when I stand on the summit of a mountain and am able to see for what feels like thousands of miles!

We were not meant to suppress the desire our hearts feel to worship! It is exactly what we were created for! It is the life we were meant to pursue!

Wondering with you,

Allison :)