Mark 0:00

There's something about watching a baby experience the world for the first time that makes you realize how much of the world we've stopped seeing. A baby can watch a ceiling fan like it's the greatest technological achievement in human history. A leaf moves in the wind and suddenly it's breaking news. A dog walks by and they are completely fascinated. Everything is new. Everything deserves a second look. And I was thinking about that recently while I was riding around the golf course with one of my grandsons. I call him Biscuit. That's not his real name, but it's Biscuit. And I watched him looking around at everything: the trees, the golf cart, the grass, me. And I thought, when did we lose that? At what age did we stop wondering? Stick around and let me tell you how I processed that question for myself. Somewhere between childhood and adulthood, something happens. We become experts. We know what that is. We've seen that before. We know how this works. We've played the course, we've heard that story, we've read that message, we've seen that passage. I've been a Christian for 30 plus years now, and sometimes familiarity quietly replaces wonder. And I think that might be one of the most dangerous things that can happen to our faith. Because wonder is often where worship begins. Think about golf. I love playing a new golf course. The first time you pull up to the first T, you're looking around. What's over there? Where does that fairway go? Look at that cool clubhouse. I'm curious. I'm paying attention. I'm looking around. It's cool. It's neat. It's new. But I've played a course a hundred times and something has changed in me. I know the holes. I know the brakes. I know the trouble. I know where I hit it last time. I can eventually get to a point where I'm playing the course without even really seeing the course. I'm just going through it, just going through the motions. And honestly, I think we can do that sometimes with God. We can know the story so well that we stop being amazed by them. We know the story of Noah. We know David and Goliath. We know Moses. We know the Christmas story. We know of the empty tomb. We know John 3.16. And because we know the story, we assume we know everything about the story. But maybe knowing the story should make us wonder more, not less. There's a verse in Proverbs that I love for this. It's chapter 25, verse 2. It says, It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out. Now, think about that. God has built mystery into this creation. And isn't that cool? There are things that He has revealed, and there are things that He has concealed. And instead of being frustrated by what we don't know, Scripture actually invites us to search a closer look, to ask questions, to investigate. I think sometimes Christians are afraid of questions, frankly. We think that if we ask a question, somehow we're showing a lack of faith. But I don't think God is intimidated by our questions. In fact, some of the greatest people in Scripture asked some pretty big ones. Job asked questions, David asked questions, the disciples asked questions all the time. Mary, Jesus' mother, asked questions. And Jesus himself constantly asked questions, not because he didn't know the answers, but because he wanted people to think. He wanted them to see something they hadn't seen before. And maybe that's part of what Jesus meant when he told us to become like children. Matthew 18, 3 says, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Jesus wasn't telling us to become immature. He was telling us to recover something children naturally have. Something my eight-month-old grand grandson naturally has. Trust, curiosity, wonder. The biscuit doesn't walk into a room thinking, I already understand this place. No, he he walks into a room thinking, what is this? And maybe that's a pretty good posture for our relationship with God. What is this, God? Why did you do that? What are you trying to show me here? Why does this verse keep bothering me? Why did that person cross my path? What are you trying to teach me through this season? What am I not seeing yet? Those aren't necessarily questions about doubt. Sometimes they're questions of relationship. Because think about somebody you love. Maybe a spouse, maybe it's a kid, maybe it's a grandfather or a friend in your life. You don't ever reach a point where you say, Well, I've known them long enough, I have them completely figured out. There's something beautiful about discovering more about someone you love. And that's true of human relationships. And if that's true of human relationships, how much of it is true about knowing an infinite God? When the Apostle Paul gets to the end of Romans chapter 11 and basically runs out of words, he starts talking about the depth of God's riches and wisdom of knowledge. And then he says in Romans 11, 33, Oh the depth of the riches and the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways. And that's not Paul saying, I don't understand God, so I'm just giving up. That's no, that's Paul saying, I don't understand God, and I'm amazed. And there's a difference because a God you can understand, a God you can completely wrap your mind around, is not a God worth worshiping. And there's a difference. And I think we need more of what Paul has. I think we need more curiosity because sometimes we approach God like He's a golf scorecard. We want everything calculated, we want everything penciled in. We want to know exactly why something happened. We want to know exactly what he's doing next. We want to know the yardage, the wind, the lie, the pin position. And God sometimes says, just trust me and take the shot. But that's hard for us because we like certainty. God often gives us faith, and faith doesn't mean we stop asking questions. Faith means we keep asking questions while still trusting the one we're asking. And that's a completely different posture than what we're used to sometimes. And here's what I've noticed about wonder. You don't have to travel to somewhere, some exotic place to find it. Sometimes you just need to slow down enough to notice what's already there. Things we've seen a hundred times, but have we really seen it? That's the question, because familiarity isn't the problem. Familiarity without attention is the problem. And maybe that's why Jesus so often used ordinary things to teach ordinary truth. Seeds, birds, vines, bread, water, fish, coins, a farmer, Jesus could take something people had walked past a thousand times and suddenly make them see God in it. And maybe we need to start doing that again. Maybe the next time we're on the golf course, instead of just asking, what did I shoot? We need to ask, What did I notice? Maybe instead of rushing through our quiet time just to check the box, we stop when we see a verse that catches us. Maybe instead of assuming we've already figured someone out, we get curious about their story. Maybe instead of looking at our circumstances and immediately asking, how do I fix this? We ask God, what are you doing here that I haven't seen yet? Because here's the thing about wonder. Wonder keeps us awake. And I think that's why I love watching a baby discover the world for the first time. They remind us that there's still more to see. And when it comes to God, there will always be more. We'll never get to the bottom of him. We'll never exhaust his wisdom. We'll never finish discovering his grace. We'll never completely comprehend his love. And that's not frustrating. That is beautiful. So maybe the goal isn't to become people who have all the answers. Maybe the goal is to become people who never stop asking for answers. Because the older we get, the easier it is to say, I've seen this before. But what if instead we said, I've seen this before, but I wonder what I'm missing this time? And that's a pretty good way to approach a golf course. And I think it's a pretty good way, even better way to approach God. So here's the takeaway. Don't confuse knowing God with having God figured out. Keep asking good questions, keep looking around, and whatever you do, don't stop wondering. Hey guys, I hope you got something out of this. I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you for subscribing, sharing, and liking. Have a great week. My name is Mark. This is Shantification, and keep chasing better.