More Wonder, Less Worry!
The point is this: the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. – 2 Corinthians 9:6, NRSV
I have never been a fan of New Year’s resolutions. Nonetheless, as the year begins I resolve to have more wonder in my life and less worry.
I’m not going to lie; there is plenty to worry about. But I have learned from keeping a journal that when I look back on what I was worrying about, it was usually the wrong thing.
I resolve to be less distracted by the shiny and ephemeral so I can pay more attention to what is truly wonderful around me. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote about wonder: “We do not come upon wonder only at the climax of thinking or in observing strange, extraordinary facts but in the startling fact that there are facts at all: being, the universe, the unfolding of time.” (God in Search of Man)
The poet of Psalm 8 looked up at the night sky, aware of the vast divide between the eternal Creator and us frail creatures, and wonder-struck that this majestic Creator should care for us mortals.
Whenever I am hesitant to approach this high and holy God in prayer, I remember that this same God, so far removed from us, reached out in love to be “God with us” in the humanity of Jesus Christ.
Whatever the new year brings, God will be with us, and that is cause for more wonder and less worry!
Prayer
God With Us, as the new year unfolds, open us to the wonder that is everywhere around us, and free us from the worry that robs us of fullness of life, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
About the AuthorRichard L. Floyd is Pastor Emeritus of First Church of Christ (UCC) in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. and author of A Course In Basic Christianity and When I Survey the Wondrous Cross: Reflections on the Atonement. He blogs at richardlfloyd.com.