Bob Hamp

In the early years of our marriage we took our children to Michigan where my brother-in-law took us water-skiing.  Without much thought to my kids in the boat, I took a few pretty lame turns around the lake.  It had been a while, and I never had been that good at water-skiing, but I was having fun.  I just was not very impressive.  Or so I thought.  When I got in the boat, all the kids were wide-eyed.  They told me that they did not know I could walk on water.

Children are amazed.

A visceral response to that which is unfolding in front of you, amazement is the state of seeing something new, something huge, something out of the ordinary, something that transports you out of the ordinary.  It is a response which removes your focus and thoughts from the mundane, and causes your pulse to speed up, because your mind has been shifted, or enlarged, or both.  Amazement is a response which imposes “thinking differently” on you.

The opposite of amazement is boredom.  I heard one teacher say that all boredom begins as spiritual boredom.  The person who is difficult to impress has lost touch with some of the most meaningful facets of reality.

Bigness.  Beauty.  Love. Sacrifice.  Generosity.  Vulnerability.  Joy.  Infants.

When one can view any of these works of art, and fail to be impressed, the meaning of life and your engagement with it has begun to fade.

I woke up today to see the sun climb over the mountains and touch the lake.  As we drove around the lake I found myself unsure of which way to look.  We stopped more than we drove.  I couldn’t stop staring at the mountains and the sun and the lake.  I couldn’t take it all in, yet was hungry to take in more.  It was amazing.  I saw some people drive by, just looking straight ahead.  Did they not see?  Or had they seen before and assumed then that they would see nothing new if they looked again this time?

Amazement is an overwhelming awareness.  This is HUGE.  This is BEAUTIFUL.  It’s not so much something you feel, as it is something you allow to invade you.  It is a way that the external climbs into your awareness, and moves you to be less self-aware. Or perhaps more aware of a healthy orientation of your self.  You are a part of a much larger truth.

Children allow the amazingness of the world to invade them on a regular basis.

“Look mom, I found a snake!”

This is the same kind of heart that responds with open-ness and allows God to invade.

“Look mom, God found me!”

Amazement is the root of reverence.  Not necessarily the silent stillness that we associate with reverence, but the mind-shifting awareness of God in all of His Bigness, Beauty and Love.  The awareness that moves us outside of our neurotic self-awareness, and into an orientation that allows us to open our hearts and be invaded.

We often find this description in the Gospels as people listen to the teaching of Jesus.

“They were amazed at His teaching.”

I think that made Jesus happy, not because He needed the validation, but because it meant that their hearts were open and being invaded.

I always remember the first time I went to church after receiving the new birth.  I walked into this place, so amazed at the people around me who had known and lived what I had just received.  How lucky they were!  How seasoned they must be at this kind of life.

Then one of my friends pointed out the deacons. I was in awe.  Until they told me this;

One of my friends said, “they have been saved so long, they’re not that excited about it.”

I was amazed!!

What I had just received the previous week, was the most amazing thing that had ever invaded me.  And these men were bored with it!?

I asked God right then.  “Please God, don’t ever let me get like that!”

Children are easily amazed.  They see bigness all around them, and know how they relate to it.  Their hearts are open to the excitement of finding a snake, or having another birthday.  Amazement keeps our hearts open, and an open heart is primed to receive.