As if I didn’t know before.
For this past Father’s Day my family gave me a map. I am a school board director and in a recent cross-state trek for a conference I missed my turn (for which miles out of my way I was not compensated by the way – laughter).
It didn’t help of course that I was on the phone at the time I missed my exit, and therefore distracted, but the nice state patrolman (the first one I had seen in 300 miles) was helpful, not only in providing directions, and not (if he knew) referencing his objection to my backing up along the Interstate to get to the exit I had just missed (I only had 25 yards to go!)
Just days later I got lost in the wilderness, having taken a trail to the left just to see where it went.
Once again it did not help that a rare moment of texting reception there deep in the forest got me distracted and therefore, I think, contributed to my lostness.
Hence the map.
Now to learn how to read it.
I was also reading a different map this morning.
“When my heart is overwhelmed,” the Psalmist David wrote, “lead me to the rock that is higher than I” (Psalm 61:2).
David was referencing his yearning, his desire – and intensely so – of a place to be that would allow him to breathe, to be quiet, to be in wonder and awe.
Ironically on this day when this text is referenced in the One Year Bible reading for today, there was, on social media, a promo for the book “Wonderstruck – How Wonder and Awe Shape the Way We Think” by Helen De Cruz.
“Taking inspiration from Descartes’s portrayal of wonder as ‘that sudden surprise of the soul,’ this illuminating book reveals how wonder and awe are catalysts that can help us reclaim what makes life worth living and preserve the things we find wonderful and valuable in our lives.”
How needful is a place above, far above, the rapid pace of our treadmill lives?
How important is breathing in the rarified air of the Himalayan-like heights where foes do not assail and criticisms pale, in light of what from way up there we can see?
The word ‘overwhelmed’ references “the covering of the heart” as “a garment of heaviness which hides sadness, the emotions muffled round with woe.”
Are you there?
Are you lost as to purpose and direction and meaning?
Are you seeking how to get from where you are to where you need to be, having found the “You Are Here” designation on the map of your life?
Then get ‘wonderstruck.’ Because wonder and awe shape the way you think, who you are.
Go.
Climb.
Wander.
And you will find the Alienation, Isolation, and Rejection (A.I.R.) you’ve experienced, replaced with knowing you are Accepted; Inspired; and Restored.
