“If loving God with all our heart means a heart that breaks for the things of God, then loving God with all our soul means a soul full of wonder, a soul flooded with the glory of God, a soul awed by beauty and majesty, a soul that hallows God above all else.”- Mark Batterson
“[The average person] looks without seeing, listens without hearing, touches without feeling, eats without tasting, inhales with awareness of odor or fragrance, and talks without thinking.”- Leonardo da Vinci
In Chapter 4 (“The Island of the Colorblind”) of Primal, Mark Batterson affirms his belief that unadulterated awe represents the most natural response to the Creator and His creation. Thus, wonder = the most primal reaction. Because that’s the Creator’s righteous reaction, Mark notes, to His own creation. We’re doing exactly what Genesis tells us God was doing.
Therefore, Pastor Batterson contends, we lose our soul when we lose our sense of wonder. Hence, Mark ads, our lack of wonder really corresponds to a lack of love. Is it possible, the author asks, that we’ve:
- given God a quick look-see instead of truly hallowing His name?
- settled for a god who conveniently fits into the inherent constraints of our logical left brains instead of a God able to do immeasurably more than all we can imagine (Ephesians 3:20) with our right brains?
- studied the God of logic, but not truly worshiped the God of wonder?
In conclusion, Mark summarizes what happens when we descend into the soul of Christianity and discover primal wonder:
“When you get past all the traditions and institutions, all the liturgies and methodologies, all the creeds and canons, what you’re left with is raw wonder that is beyond logic and beyond words. . . . Wonder defies logic. Wonder defies words. And anything else or anything less is religion.”
Today’s question: What Bible verses strengthen a soul that hallows God? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “Silence – one of the soul’s love languages”
