Awe and Wonder, Every Day

 

1 Teach me, God, to wonder, teach me, God, to see;

let your world of beauty capture me.

Praise to you be given, love for you be lived,

life be celebrated, joy you give.

                                       Voices United 299

I'm pleased to say that not only did we get to church yesterday despite the "Spring forward" time change, I was also awake enough to pay attention to the sermon. This is important given that the preacher is our son, Isaac, and while he never tests our comprehension I want to be attentive. 

During Lent Isaac is doing a series on six spiritual practices with the visual of the petals of a flower. Yesterday we considered worship and the sense of awe or "wow". In the weekly Friday mailout we were asked:

What have you seen or heard in the past week that has made you say, "Wow!"?  When we worship as a community of faith, we bring our sense of wonder and awe to God, and recent scientific research has shown that the practice of finding a sense of marvel with the world can have profoundly positive impacts on our lives.  On Sunday we'll take time to reflect more on what the practice of worship means for our lives as human beings and for the wider creation.

During his message Isaac drew upon an interview with author Dacher Keltner about his recent book called Awe: The Transformative Power of Everyday Wonder. The title rang a bell and I realized that I have it on hold at the library. Ike noted five areas from Keltner's research of how people experience awe. If my memory serves me correctly they are:

Nature, Music, Visual Art, Religious Activity, and People

This just about covers it for me -- all five of them -- and we talked about them as we headed away from the church building to walk at two Conservation Areas. In one we climbed a tower at the top of a hill to gain a vista of more than 20 kilometres. At the other we were alone in the woods throughout our ramble. Ruth commented that she finds meaning in attending a service of worship where we are cognizant of the powerful stories of some people around us, yet there are many we don't know, at least not yet. 

You can go to the Trenton United Church website for the sermon in its entirety, and to find out if I'm accurate in my recollection. 

How about for you? Do these five categories work for your experience of awe, wonder, even worship? 

Here is a worthwhile review of the book from The Guardian.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/jan/05/awe-by-dacher-keltner-review-the-transformative-power-of-wonder