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W well hey good morning Menlow church! So great to be with you. It's been a few weeks since I've been with you, so welcome. I'm so glad that you're here in our second week in this series, "Wired for Wonder," that we're beginning our new year with.
We're diving into this subject that I think we could all use some more of in our lives so that as this New Year sometimes picks up where the last one left off, we can find God's centering power for our lives. That's really my hope for you in this series. Even if faith is a brand new experience for you, a special welcome to all of our Bay Area campuses: Saratoga, Mountain View, here in Menlo Park, and San Mateo. I'm so glad that you're here, and welcome to those of you joining us online.
It's been really fun to meet more of you even in this last month face to face. We're so thankful for what God is doing in your lives too.
Now, this week in our culture is where we honor the legacy and leadership of Martin Luther King Jr. Even more than who he was as a man, the movement for equality is both celebrated for its progress in a week like this. As believers, we also get to pray and ask that the progress that has not yet been made might continue forward in our world.
As a matter of fact, for millennia, Christians have been at the forefront of communicating that all people are created in the image of God with infinite dignity, value, and worth, no matter what they might think about God. That's what God thinks about them. And no one is perfect, including Christians, in this fight and struggle for equality to end racism and prejudice and justice. But we believe that everyone is loved by God and that everyone is offered salvation through his son, Jesus.
So with that as a backdrop, as we think about today, we think about the new year, we think about all that is in front of us, I'm going to pray for us. And if you've never been here before or never heard me speak, I pray kneeling.
The reason that I do that is because when we think about the posture of what we might do to present ourselves before a God of this kind of vast power, this kind of incredible supreme character, humbling ourselves is always the appropriate beginning.
Would you pray with me?
God, so many of us walk into a day like today with the year already well underway, with so many things already on our plate, with so much already in front of us. Some of us, God, hope springs eternal on a day like today; for some of us, hope feels so elusive. Some of us, God, we are grieving loss; some of us are celebrating something new.
And, God, we ask that you would meet each and every one of us exactly where we are with exactly what we need from you, that we might walk closer to you today and in the days to come because of it. It's in Jesus' name, amen.
I wonder, have you ever seen one of these before? It's a Chinese finger trap. It's, you know, kind of a child's toy. It's pretty easy, once you know how it works, to get out of it, right? You want to pull on it to be able to get out of it, but it's by pushing, the way you wouldn't expect, that gets your fingers out of it. You have to do the thing that's counterintuitive.
I've watched plenty of little kids that are trying to learn what this is without explanation just try to tear it apart because they don't have the patience to do the opposite of what they would expect, right? The principle at play is important, though, because pulling and getting free from the trap are actually mutually exclusive decisions. You can't do the thing that would come most naturally and experience the outcome that you want.
It takes the counterintuitive effort to do something different to experience the outcome you hope for. And I think you're going to see that parallel pretty closely in the way we talk about wonder today.
Last week, Cheryl began our series by introducing us to Habakkuk, a prophet of God who shares his deep concerns about the injustice and pain that he sees all around him in his moment. He does this because he knows the heart of God. He knows that the heart of God is for justice for everyone everywhere. But his perspective is limited.
He provides very direct and honest feedback to God. It's one of the reasons that I love this book. And in turn, God provides him with just a little bit of the plan that he would use to bring ultimate justice to the world. Suffice to say, it was not what Habakkuk had expected. It involved using people that Habakkuk would have considered unusable, would have thought the most unqualified to bring about and deliver God's plan.
But just like this finger trap, Habakkuk needed to see something that would allow him to understand the counterintuitive nature of God in order to trust the plan he was hearing. Last week, we saw God's perspective highlighted this way: "Look among the nations and see; wonder and be astonished, for I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told."
He would go on and tell them anyway, but this letter becomes this back-and-forth conversation between Habakkuk and God where more and more details get shared. Habakkuk should kind of be a little bit of a cautionary tale for all of us because many of us, Christian or not, have this idea that if I see God one day, I have some questions for him.
We also, I think, really, if we're honest, what we mean is, "God, do you have a divine suggestion box where I could just let you know how I think the world and the universe should operate? Because I think you need some feedback."
See, but the all-powerful God that responds to Habakkuk can remind us of just how powerful he truly is. The voice of God, written by the prophet Isaiah, puts it this way, putting words to God: "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the Lord. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."
So what will you do? Will you, like the child that first experiences the finger trap, just pull harder and harder with the concerns that you have and the conclusions that you assume in your own worry? Or will you try something different?
I think a series like this, diving into words like this from Habakkuk, gives us that invitation. A core idea that we find in Habakkuk about the counterintuitive and mutually exclusive nature of wonder is that you will not find wonder in your worry. They are mutually exclusive.
We're going to look at a section of Habakkuk's final response to God in his short letter. We're skipping to the last chapter on purpose because he gives us a vision of giving up the hurry of our worry, which is necessary if we want to wonder.
Today, this week, this year, worry is one of those concepts that's so hardwired into us that our own version of worry feels just like the temperature of the water we're swimming in. We're unaware of what alternatives even exist. What seems normal for you may feel so stressful and overwhelming to someone else, but you have no standard by which to compare.
Some of you, you're successful at your job, at least in part because of your capacity to worry, or at least that's what you've convinced yourself of. You can see around the corner; you can see what threats are coming; you can see the holes in the research. But that skill can easily bleed into places and into relationships with people where it is not helpful.
See, worry and hurry often get linked because pace is usually where the problem of worry shows up. Nearly 40 years ago, two cardiologists, while doing research at Stanford, developed a concept called hurry sickness.
Hurry sickness is a form of unhealthy busyness, often displayed by a surplus of activities and a deficit of time to complete or experience them well, leading to a pace that is incompatible with personal peace or deep relationships.
Now, I know none of you struggle with that, but maybe you know someone who does, right? Just take notes for them. No, I think we can all feel this on some level, right? Our cultural pace has certainly not slowed down in the last 40 years.
I think on some level, Habakkuk felt the press of hurry sickness even as he was writing. He wanted God to work in his timeline, during his lifetime, because he wanted to be a part of seeing it all come to pass. Sound familiar?
But the prayer that we see him offer back to God, once he has heard the plan, the one he can't even fully comprehend, gives us a snapshot of what trusting the person of God beyond our personal plans can look like.
Let's look at a few verses together. Habakkuk says back, "Oh Lord, I have heard the report of you and your work. Oh Lord, do I fear. In the midst of the years revive it; in the midst of the years make it known; in wrath remember mercy."
God came from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran. His splendor covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise. His brightness was like the light; rays flashed from his hand, and there he veiled his power.
Before him went pestilence and plague followed at his heels. He stood and measured the earth; he looked and shook the nations. Then the eternal mountains were scattered; everlasting hills sank low; his were the everlasting ways.
Now, we aren't totally sure about the moment in time in the history of Israel that Habakkuk is writing these words, but he is referencing back to the deliverance from Egypt and God's faithfulness in past generations.
And I would say this: whether you're a Christian or not, whether you're a person of faith or not, you have experienced God's grace and faithfulness in your life. You have. There are times and circumstances in all of our lives when the outcome didn't match the expectation, where something shouldn't have worked out and it did, where something shouldn't have been healed and it was, where something shouldn't have added up financially and it overflowed.
God's grace is present in all of our lives, and those are little glimmers and little hopes in a broken and damaged world that show us even when healing doesn't come, healing is available. Even when things don't measure up, even when things don't work out, even when the disease isn't cured, that the God of health, healing, and hope is still alive and well.
Scholars who study this passage offer multiple possibilities for what is happening with Habakkuk here. It's clearly more than just Habakkuk getting a note from God or even hearing audibly from God what was about to happen. It's more like Habakkuk's reaction to being offered a vision, being taken somewhere by God, and not just told what was going to happen but shown what God would do.
I asked an artificial intelligence tool to create an image of what this passage might look like, and regardless of how close this image lines up to what Habakkuk actually saw, it gives us a sense of the scale of God's power. That no matter what you are facing, you see his covering of the heavens, his rapture of power flowing from him, the coming judgment to bring ultimate justice in partnership with grace.
We will never experience perfect and permanent justice this side of the moment that Habakkuk saw in the future. When we read a passage like this, it's easy to see why Habakkuk could begin to let go of some of his worry and some of his hurry.
He had been thinking about how it would all take place in his lifetime, but God was not primarily interested in just completing things in his lifetime. God's timeline is all of time. He's not trying to meet your and my expectations or timelines. It actually wouldn't be good if he did.
At the root of the hurry is a false sense of control and a desire to maximize our own influence while ignoring the influence and impact of the kind of God that Habakkuk is describing. Some of the symptoms of this idea of hurry sickness get documented in a book called "The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry" by John Mark Comer, and he highlights a few this way.
He talks about constant rushing, this idea that in every situation throughout our lives, we find ourselves just pushing the pace, pushing the pace, pushing the pace. Maybe for you, it's superficiality; you can never get deeper in relationship. For you, you are always skimming the surface.
A restlessness, workaholism, emotional numbness, out-of-order priorities, lack of care for your body, escapist behavior, spiritual neglect, and isolation. And before you know, these were not written just for people who live in Silicon Valley. I'm sure that we can all remember a time when we didn't need to be in a hurry, but we felt rushed anyway.
I can be this way when I'm driving. Sometimes there is no reason to push the pace of the trip, but I have let myself operate at an unsustainable pace long enough that that pace has become the pattern, and I just follow the pattern no matter the circumstances.
Other times at work or with family and friends, maybe you find yourself giving a disproportionate response emotionally when someone or something has inconvenienced you. Those are little red flags in our lives that we may be too narrowly focusing on the problem of our life without remembering that the person who is bigger than the problem is the one that can run and rule our lives.
A psychologist in the '70s coined the term "flow," and flow is a concept of being so immersed in something that your intrusive thoughts and self-critique fade, giving you greater freedom in the moment. I think that Habakkuk was in the flow when he had this vision with God, where so many of the problems of his life that didn't just go away, they went into proper perspective.
Maybe for you, even as I read those words preserved for thousands of years from Habakkuk, maybe for you, you had a moment like that where the things in your life changed, where the things in your life came into proper perspective. Because no matter the problem, no matter the pain, no matter the injustice, this God is ushering in his kingdom in your world and in the world.
And no matter how foreign that kingdom may feel, God's kingdom will be fulfilled. His kingdom will come; his will will be done. It's inevitable.
So the mutually exclusive principle that if this kind of wonder is available, then your kind of worry isn't necessary. As a matter of fact, you will not find wonder in your worry. Try it out. What is the situation that you feel too close to zoom out to the picture that God has painted for us?
See, there are times in our life over and over again where we are granted these gifts from God that show us just how magnificent and wonderful he truly is. And we see it at different times through the language and vocabulary and eyes of ancient writers, people who have experienced this long before any of us were alive.
One of the most famous ones that gives us a portal into wonder shows up when God is talking to Abraham, who would become the father of Israel. Abraham, who would have been collecting Social Security checks for many decades at this point, is told by God to go count the number of stars in the sky with no light pollution in the Middle East thousands of years ago.
And he says, "That's the blessing that's waiting for you; that's the nation that I'll grow from you." And for Abraham, that would have just been a lot of stars. It would have been overwhelming and seemingly impossible.
And now for us, thousands of years later, we would say, "Oh, well, we actually know the number that we're talking about." That if in our little master-planned corner of the universe, our individual galaxy, you were to look out in the sky and could count the number of stars, if you counted one star for every second, it would take you 2,500 years to count all the stars in the galaxy. That's the size of God that we have.
The second half of the section that we're looking at from Habakkuk gives us a glimpse into what he was really having to surrender in order to find greater wonder in God. Consumed with God's judgment delivered in the way and timing that he really wanted, Habakkuk had to begin giving up getting even.
We all want to get even. I bet you have some people in your life right now that you want to get even with. Maybe you've been praying about them already. And you know there's a thing when we get wrong; getting even feels important because it feels like it makes sure that that wrong doesn't go unaddressed.
But in this verse, we aren't seeing him give up on things being made right; we're just seeing him surrender the poison of trying to do that on his own and letting God be the one that does the work to make it right in a way that only he can.
He continues this lengthy section this way: "I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction; the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble. Was your wrath against the rivers, O Lord? Was your anger against the rivers or your indignation against the sea when you rode on your horses or your chariot of salvation? You stripped the sheath from your bow, calling for many arrows. You split the earth with rivers; the mountains saw you and writhed; the raging waters swept on; the deep gave forth its voice; it lifted its hands on high. The sun and moon stood still in their place at the light of your arrows as they sped, at the flash of your glittering spear. You marched through the earth in fury; you threshed the nations in anger. You went out for the salvation of your people, for the salvation of your anointed. You crushed the head of the house of the wicked, laying him bare from thigh to neck. You pierced with his own arrows the heads of his warriors who came like a whirlwind to scatter me, rejoicing as if to devour the poor in secret. You trampled the sea with your horses, the surging of mighty waters."
You can see why maybe we don't include that passage in children's Bibles, but it reminds us that judgment is coming. It reminds us that while God is loving and God is patient, God is also perfectly holy and perfectly judging.
See, Habakkuk, he's referencing back to God's faithfulness throughout all of Israel's history, bringing to mind military victory over impossible foes, bringing to mind supernatural provision in the midst of poverty, freedom from repeated captivity—times where it just should have never worked that way, and God kept showing up over and over and over again.
We see these glimpses of the forever kingdom of heaven, and we still see those glimpses in the life and ministry of Jesus thousands of years later. And we still see those glimpses of that kingdom today if we're looking.
No matter how difficult the circumstances in your life, no matter how insurmountable the enemy that you face, God's faithfulness is still greater. The vision from Habakkuk is one of an infinitely invincible God.
I'm always a little nervous about using military and war terms to describe God, but the power here is greater than anything any of us could imagine. This week in the BBC, there was an announcement that a second supercluster was discovered roughly 9.3 billion light-years away, an almost perfectly symmetrical arc spanning 3.3 billion light-years across. If we could see it from the earth and lined up side by side, it would be the size of 35 of our moons in the sky.
We just found it. And here's the problem: because of how science understands the origins of the universe, these symmetrical clusters have even more questions that go with them because that's not supposed to be the way that it works. And so they're trying to figure out and answer the question of why are these like that and how does that show up?
But I think they remind us of just how incredible our God is. As a matter of fact, experts continue to look for and try to find more intelligent life in the universe because we can all be honest as we look at the size and scale of the universe. If we are it, it would seem like maybe the universe got a little bit overbuilt.
But the writers in the scriptures tell us that the heavens declare the glories of God. And so maybe, just maybe, one of the reasons that the universe exists in a vast nature is so that as we look at it, we might see the character and nature of God. That's wonder.
This isn't about putting our problems in proper perspective. This passage reminds us of who God is and how capable he is to handle our lives and our world. God's heart breaks for the injustices in our life. God's heart breaks for what's breaking yours, but it doesn't break him.
He will continue to reign and rule and usher in a plan that is bigger than all of us and yet includes each of us. He isn't surprised or overwhelmed by the weight of your worry. He isn't broken by what breaks us.
We get such a clear vision of God's power in this passage that Habakkuk is asking God. He's like, "Are you mad at the natural elements? Like, you are so powerful. Are you mad at the river? Are you mad at the sea? Are you mad at the mountains? Are you mad at the sun? Are you mad at the moon?" But they are all obeying him.
In this future-looking vision that Habakkuk is describing, he's describing God putting all of natural creation back into its proper place. Jesus' disciples actually watched this happen during his earthly ministry. They were out on a boat where these professional fishermen faced a storm while Jesus slept, and they were convinced—these professional fishermen—they were convinced that this storm was about to take their life.
And so they wake up Jesus to go, "Do you care? We're just going to all die." And they see this response from Jesus recorded by the Apostle Mark: "He got up, rebuked the wind, and said to the waves, 'Quiet! Be still!' Then the wind died down, and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, 'Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?'"
They were terrified and asked each other, "Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him."
I've often thought, as I've read this passage, how amazing it is that John 1 gives us a picture that the voice of creation, the agent of creation in Genesis 1, was the person of Jesus. And so here, the wind and the waves that came into existence from the voice of Jesus are now finding peace because of the same voice that created them.
That's an invitation to wonder. They still had problems at the end of their day. It didn't make everything all better, but they also had Jesus, and they knew the power that he carried a little bit more after that.
Growing up, I learned some old hymns that would remind me of the principles and nature of God. I love new songs, and worship music is one of my favorite types of music. I think some of the music we sing now, while it's great, we sort of sing it for a minute and then it's gone. Hymns have this kind of staying power.
And so I would love to sing just a section of a hymn. It's called "Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus," and if you know it, I'd love for you to sing it with me because I think it can be a reminder for all of us. One of those things we just say, "God, would you get this stuck in my head today? Would you remind me of this?"
Would you sing these words with me?
"Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in his wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace."
That doesn't mean that everything's all better, but it will be one day. For followers of Jesus, that's the reminder all the time. Every time we take a moment to experience and remember the wonder of God, a lot of times for followers of Jesus, we think about New Year rhythms of either how to create something new or renew something—maybe it's Bible reading, or it's study, prayer, maybe even church attendance. Maybe that's why you're here today.
And those are all great things, but I think Habakkuk would tell us, "Don't let those things just become cold routine. Always find wonder in the person and the work of Jesus."
See, the reason that we're providing the wonder journals in this series is so that you can let God meet you in this place of greater appreciation for the full scope of his glory and power. The wonder of God is bigger than the worries of our lives, but if we never look at him, we will never see it.
Days like today, passages like these are invitations to do just that. So if it's true that you won't find wonder in your worry, how can you combat the worry and the hurry with the wonder of God's power in creation?
We can do it just like Habakkuk did. I can tell you all the ways to get outdoors, enjoy the creation, which are all true, but might not be you. Thomas Merton, a monk, challenged where we could find wonder by simply standing.
The gate of heaven is everywhere. When Jesus taught us how to pray, he said, "Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." And when we pray that prayer, we're saying, "God, you can show up anywhere and everywhere all the time."
But are we looking? Maybe in your own heart, you have to ask God to change the affections and what you're praying for, that you might discover God's wonder. It's available.
Maybe it's in the beauty of your daily routine, or if you enjoy nature, it's the beauty of finding God in the splendor of the ocean or the mountains that Habakkuk saw so clearly were under God's control.
But for some of you, it's difficult to escape. How can I find God wonderful even in my own mind? How can I understand the incredible capacity of God? Recently, I've been so encouraged by a podcast that's kind of been this breadcrumb for me personally.
It's a podcast talking about the work of God on a global scale to bring back a sense of hope and faith. The podcast is called "The Surprising Rebirth of Belief in God." Just a decade ago, the new atheist movement in our culture and in the West was so prominent, and we see God bringing even some of those very people to a personal faith in Jesus. It's incredible.
I mentioned the idea of hurry sickness and the symptoms that we might feel, but what about worry sickness in your life? Do you find yourself overwhelmed by the potential outcomes that you have yet to experience? Are you paralyzed in indecision because the outcomes aren't universally positive? It feels like a risk.
Do you struggle to sleep because your mind is racing, already trying to solve the problems that felt unaddressed from the day before while new ones are awaiting you in the morning? And you're doing all of it as though you're the only one doing it.
So much of our wonder is worried away because the worry itself isolates us. We convince ourselves that no one can help, no one can understand, no one is even interested in helping. And here's the thing: every time we do that, every time we convince ourselves we're the only ones who can do this, no one can help me, no one's interested, we hurt ourselves and we hurt other people.
And God's got something so much better for you than that. Those are lies. There are people here at Menlo that would love to be in relationship with you, that would love to have you in their group, that would love for you to be needed and known in this place.
And the God of the universe is the reason why, because he cares. He cares so much that he would send his only son to live a perfect life, die on your behalf, and then come back from the grave so that you and I could experience life with him today and forever.
So many of us, we think about this idea of God's plan about someday in heaven, and that's true, but it's also today, right here, that heaven might enter into your everyday story.
As we finish our time together, I want to ask God together where we might look for wonder this week. I'm going to ask you to take a moment, just yourself, in the quietness of your own heart and mind to pray and listen.
Maybe it's in your Bible this week; maybe it's a long walk in prayer and unhurried conversation with a friend; maybe it's letting God show you where your life is unnecessarily divided and where it's creating stress and pressure.
Whatever your next step is, write it down, type it out, maybe even schedule it in your calendar so that you don't forget. See, here's the thing: if worry can keep you from wonder, I have really good news: wonder can keep you from worry.
So let's take just a moment to pray in the quiet of your own moment, and then at the end, I'll pray for us and finish our time.
on Jan 15, 2024
