World of Wonder

As we abide. So we remember 

The proverb goes: “There is a way that seems right, but in the end only leads to death.” When we deploy only strict rational logic to the world, we observe things a certain way. We use sensibility as the primary measurement, what we might call “common sense.”

Such sensible logic, though, is not particularly better or clearer by being more sensible (that is, more easily measurable by the senses). It relies strictly on the senses to give an accurate account of what is, removing all need for revelation beyond the senses. 

That’s the dangerous part. Life becomes only about doing what is sensibly right. And that’s all it becomes. Any other layers of reality are stripped away, devoid of meaning. There is only what we can see, taste, touch, hear and smell. Nothing else is real.  

Or at least useful. We may still confess to an “invisible world,” but in reality that world gets less and less functional. It becomes “dangerous” to make decisions based on this world. And sooner than later, we end up writing the non-rational out of reality.

But what if the invisible world is part of the “real” world? What if those intangible benefits are just as real? Or more real? And all the reasonable, sensible things are temporarily “real,” but fade in meaning with time? A kind of intuition flip might just make sense. 

Even when the invisible world initially makes less sense. 

Nothing makes sense, initially. We tend to make an idol out of sense. As if the universe owes us an explanation. It does not. And as long as we try to squeeze everything into our tiny world of sense, the world will continue to disappoint us. Wonder will be lost. 

The world will cease to amaze us.  

Blow up your senses! Let go of the world you know. It is not that great anyway. And if you think it is, there is something better. But first, we must experience a sort of death. We have to bury our need for an explanation, our demand that things make sense. 

It is our choice. That’s no surprise. At the end of the day, we decide which view of reality we take. For most, the need for understanding (and the controlling that comes with it) is too great. Many settle, sadly, for a very small universe, devoid of invisible magic.  

But if there is more, wouldn’t you want to know? Like the mystics who dared to believe the earth was more than flat, and not the center of the universe. Even though by sense alone, at the time, it was. And people were insistent to keep it that way. 

Many were burned at the stake as heretics for challenging such small views of the world. We like our small views. That’s reality. We like to keep things “manageable.” If we believe we are responsible to control our world, such a view is understandable. 

Even sensible. 
But we are not called to control the world, but simply to steward its gifts. 

And our calling into stewardship is not one devoid of the sustaining power of creation. God did not set things up here and head off to another project. He is invisibly present. And the original song of creation continues to play on. And to play out.

To those who are willing, our work is simply to abide and listen. And be filled with wonder again.