I wrote about my friend, Margaret Feinberg, in the October issue of Christianity Today as one of the 50 Women to Watch. She has a new book and 7-session DVD Bible Study (with Lifeway) called, Wonderstruck: Awaken to the Nearness of God releasing in time for January book clubs and Bible studies. The book and 7-session DVD Bible study are available at your local LifeWay store. Follow Margaret on Twitter at www.twitter.com/mafeinberg.
I recently asked Margaret a few questions about her new project. She'll be hanging around the blog today, so feel free to ask her any questions you have in the comments below.
Why do you think it's important for us to "live wonderstruck"?
If you look in the Gospels, what you'll discover is that those who encountered Jesus were constantly left in wild amazement. They were awestruck by the teachings of Christ, the healings of Christ, the mind-bending miracles of Christ. Within the Gospel of Luke we see words like "awe" and "wonder" and "marvel" at every turn. If this is the natural response to encountering Christ, how much more should it be for you and I--who are invited to live in relationship with Christ as sons and daughters of our God Most High?
Why do you think church leaders are particularly prone to losing the wonder of God in their lives?
The function and familiarity are two primary reasons. On many days, working in a church feels like going behind the scenes at Disney World. We get to see Donald Duck out of his suit which let's be honest: it's not a pretty sight. We see Space Mountain with all the lights on and discover a big warehouse with a tiny roller coaster.
Our work requires us to go behind the scenes and become aware of the systems and processes that are necessary for a church to function. Details we never concerned ourselves with--the quantity of communion wafers and traffic flow between services--require more thought, time and energy that we planned on giving to such seemingly trivial matters (which prove to be wildly important).
Our focus on the functionality combined with the increased sense of familiarity of working in a church week in and week out can numb us to the wondrous work to which we've been called--creating passionate disciples of Jesus Christ.
As leaders, the wonder can so easily slip away.
That's why we must be diligent about nurturing a sense of the wonder of God in our lives. We must lift our eyes from the midst of our every day and the mundane to once again have our breaths taken away by our magnificence and splendor of our God.
When we regain that sense of wonder, those who we lead and disciple will, too.
What can church leaders do to begin rekindling their sense of wonder?
This book and Bible study were born out of one of the toughest years of our lives for my husband Leif and I. We were getting pounded in all directions--and the prayer that emerged wasn't for greater faith or trust or even strength, but a prayer for wonder. In the midst of pain and loss and hardship, I longed to recapture the wonder of God and be astounded by Him again.
So begin by praying for wonder. Every day. As you pray, what you'll find is the posture of your life begins to change as you begin looking for how God wants to answer. You'll begin to see the divine fingerprints of God in your schedule, your "chance" encounters, your conversations. Before you know it, you'll begin pausing by details you once walked by--the soft light of the setting sun, the brightness of an infant's eyes, the particulars in Scripture you may have once rushed by. Praying for wonder asks God to reveal Himself again and again, and places us in a posture of seeing and savoring God and His handiwork all around.
The wonder awaits in your relationships, schedule, Sabbath, and so much more. Don't wait another day.
How do you connect being wonderstruck with the nature of God-- his sovereignty, awesomeness, etc?
The nature of God is breathtaking, indeed. One of the aspects of God that leaves me awestruck is how the such attributes--including His sovereignty, magnificence, wisdom, love, power and much more--are demonstrated all around us. I love how in the book of Job, when God finally speaks beginning in Job 38, that God takes Job on a tour de force of creation.Through nature, God reveals His nature. God gives Job (and all of us) a taste of what God is all about. From the outer edges of the galaxy to the subterranean depths, we see God's sovereignty, glory, wisdom, affection, power and more displayed--and these are but glimpses, small snapshots of the nature of God. If the sight of something finite and small like a falling raindrop challenge us, how much more infinite must our God be?
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