In The Ragamuffin Gospel Brennan Manning quotes Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, saying, "Never once in my life did I ask God for success or wisdom or power or fame. I asked for wonder, and He gave it to me."
Take a look around. You don't have to look very far at all to see the wonder that is displayed. Think of God showing the beauty of His creation to you and asking, "Do you like it? I made it all for you."
How insane to try and comprehend that out of the vast array of literal awesomeness expressed throughout the cosmos we would be so important that He should notice us.
And not just take notice of us, but to humble Himself to the point of death to demonstrate how much He outright LOVES us. A single act that cleanly wipes the slate of the best that man has ever had to offer.
But still, despite all He has done, we seem to think that we can build towers to heaven. We think that our "wisdom", the incredible ability of man to reason, will save us. There is no creature so arrogant as man. Our very struggle to leave a footprint on the universe will be but a grain of sand dropped into the roaring seas when time has come to an end. It is inevitable that no matter what man achieves, the universe would one day forget him.
The man who thinks himself most wise shall one day be brought low by the realization of the power held within a single act. "Wisdom" is but foolishness if it leads away from the message of the gospel.
1 Corinthians 1:18 beautifully displays the wonder of His gift to us in contrast to our own attempts at greatness; "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those of us who are being save it is the power of God."
Why foolishness you say? A man considered wise by others may see himself as above the idea of salvation, that the message delivered on the cross is nothing to which he should pay any heed. To him, it is a story and carries no weight. The power of God is understood best by those who seek to be saved, not by those that seek to save themselves, those that seek to make themselves great in other men's eyes.
How much a single moment where God acts can overshadow us, and it is in His works that we must believe, for what can we truly achieve by ourselves? Paul writes several verses later in 1 Corinthians 2:5 "that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." This is why He came, this is why He surrounds us daily with beauty beyond our understanding. It is because He wants us to know that it is by Him we are saved, through His power alone.
Cry out in wonder at the magnificence around you. Take a moment to lose your focus on your busy daily routine and look around you. If we focus too hard on the path we are walking we will miss the beauty of the sunset being painted above. Psalm 19 is fantastic in the way that it expresses the beauty of creation saying, "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Their line has gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world."
Don't get caught up in trying to be wise by the standards of the world; the world itself will pass away one day. Instead, seek His love, accept His gift to us, forsake all for His purpose. The wisdom and the achievements of men are as nothing when brought into juxtaposition with the cross, all it serves to do is to demonstrate how we can never reach Him without His reaching out to us.
Think of the words of Paul in Philippians 3:7-14:
Take a look around. You don't have to look very far at all to see the wonder that is displayed. Think of God showing the beauty of His creation to you and asking, "Do you like it? I made it all for you."
How insane to try and comprehend that out of the vast array of literal awesomeness expressed throughout the cosmos we would be so important that He should notice us.
And not just take notice of us, but to humble Himself to the point of death to demonstrate how much He outright LOVES us. A single act that cleanly wipes the slate of the best that man has ever had to offer.
But still, despite all He has done, we seem to think that we can build towers to heaven. We think that our "wisdom", the incredible ability of man to reason, will save us. There is no creature so arrogant as man. Our very struggle to leave a footprint on the universe will be but a grain of sand dropped into the roaring seas when time has come to an end. It is inevitable that no matter what man achieves, the universe would one day forget him.
The man who thinks himself most wise shall one day be brought low by the realization of the power held within a single act. "Wisdom" is but foolishness if it leads away from the message of the gospel.
1 Corinthians 1:18 beautifully displays the wonder of His gift to us in contrast to our own attempts at greatness; "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those of us who are being save it is the power of God."
Why foolishness you say? A man considered wise by others may see himself as above the idea of salvation, that the message delivered on the cross is nothing to which he should pay any heed. To him, it is a story and carries no weight. The power of God is understood best by those who seek to be saved, not by those that seek to save themselves, those that seek to make themselves great in other men's eyes.
How much a single moment where God acts can overshadow us, and it is in His works that we must believe, for what can we truly achieve by ourselves? Paul writes several verses later in 1 Corinthians 2:5 "that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." This is why He came, this is why He surrounds us daily with beauty beyond our understanding. It is because He wants us to know that it is by Him we are saved, through His power alone.
Cry out in wonder at the magnificence around you. Take a moment to lose your focus on your busy daily routine and look around you. If we focus too hard on the path we are walking we will miss the beauty of the sunset being painted above. Psalm 19 is fantastic in the way that it expresses the beauty of creation saying, "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Their line has gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world."
Don't get caught up in trying to be wise by the standards of the world; the world itself will pass away one day. Instead, seek His love, accept His gift to us, forsake all for His purpose. The wisdom and the achievements of men are as nothing when brought into juxtaposition with the cross, all it serves to do is to demonstrate how we can never reach Him without His reaching out to us.
Think of the words of Paul in Philippians 3:7-14:
----But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.-----
His word inspires me, and I am filled with wonder. For this reason I will run with all that I am towards Him, leaving behind all that the world counts as wise, and pursuing the foolish beauty of the cross.
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