Psalm 139:6 “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.”
Before going to university, I spent my year out teaching in a rural school in South Africa. I lived by myself in the middle of nowhere. Zebras and antelope would graze around my thatched rondavel. Baboons tore down my roof. I woke up with a rat in my armpit. It was so beautiful and idyllic, and yet very quickly became completely normal for me. Visitors would come to stay and stand in awe at the beauty, but I had become dull to it. Familiarity had bred contempt.
I think sometimes something similar happens in our relationship with Jesus. Robert Capon explores this brilliantly:
“We are in a war between dullness and astonishment. The most critical issue facing Christians is not abortion, pornography, the disintegration of the family, moral absolutes, MTV, drugs, racism, sexuality or school prayer. The critical issue is dullness. We have lost our astonishment. The Good News is no longer good news, it is okay news. Christianity is no longer life-changing, it is life-enhancing. Jesus doesn’t change people into wide-eyed radicals anymore; he changes them into ‘nice people’. If Christianity is simply about being nice, I’m not interested.
What happened to radical Christianity, the un-nice brand of Christianity that turned the world upside down? What happened to the kind of Christians who were filled with passion and gratitude and who every day were unable to get over the grace of God? I’m ready for a Christianity that ‘ruins’ my life, that captures my heart and makes me uncomfortable. I want to be filled with an astonishment which is so captivating that I am considered wild and unpredictable and… well… dangerous. I want a faith that is considered ‘dangerous’ by our predictable and monotonous culture.”
God, rid me of dullness, replace it with astonishment, and recapture in me a fire to be who you’ve called me to be today. Amen!
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