Transcript
Ben Fallon: We have a long question today, but I think the full context will be helpful, so I'll jump right in. Alex writes, “I read your book, “Awe,” and I'm currently going back through the book a second time. I wanted to thank you because this book has impacted my life greatly. I found myself consistently on my knees before the Lord asking for his forgiveness for my idolatry after reading each chapter. Paul, I'm now stuck between a rock and a hard place. The journey of making Jesus, Father God, and the Holy Spirit the center of my awe seems absolutely impossible. I believe it's very vital to be honest with God and not to hide what you really feel from him. How can the God of the universe, someone I cannot see, feel, taste, touch, or hear, take the place of the best sex life, the most passionate romantic relationship, and a family that loves each other? This is definitely one of my greatest idols before the Lord. Every time I go to the gym, I see how beautiful women are and I tell God, ‘How could I honestly want you more than being in a love and romantic relationship with a beautiful woman who loves me?’ I'm trying to humble myself and submit this to the Lord, but every day I wake up, I am reminded how dry and dull it is praying to Jesus and then feeling shame that I don't know how to make him my awe because what he made is so much more incredible. I don't know how not to make things I can experience not more important than a God who is invisible. Jesus says, ‘When you seek me with your whole heart, you will find me.’ I don't know how to do this. One of the saddest and most devastating parts of your book was the part about the man you met who was rich and had everything, but he was absolutely miserable and yet had everything I could ever want and crave. This obviously puts a huge gash through my belief system. ‘Paul, what do I do? I feel so lost! How can I honestly and truly look up to God and say he satisfies me more than the things he made? I want this, but I feel like such a liar when I do.’”
Paul Tripp: I want to speak to this question theologically first and then practically. The theology of the physical world in Scripture is that creation was meant to help us to see the glory of the Creator. The beauty, the glory, the awesome nature, the satisfaction of creation, was never meant by God to be an end in itself. The physical creation, whether it's a beautiful life, whether it's a satisfying sexual life, whether it's a great meal, whether it's a beautiful hummingbird, or an awesome waterfall, or multi-hued leaves in the fall, all those things are fingers pointing us to the glory of God. And so, what is meant to happen is when I get done with a meal, I am just filled with a sense of the presence and the love of God, not just saying, “This is the best restaurant ever and I want this restaurant in my life.” And so, you have to train yourself to experience the greater blessing behind the blessing.
I have a beautiful, loving wife, but she's not nearly as beautiful and loving as the God who placed her in my life. And I want to look at Luella; I want to see him! I'm a painter by avocation and if I'm able to create beauty on a canvas, how can I do that? Every stroke, every thought, the chemical elements, are all there because of the goodness of God, because God wants me to enjoy these beautiful things. The fact that you can peel a tangerine, and it's sweet and juicy, it’s there because God loves you and he's present. That's his little message, “I'm in your life. I love you. I want you to experience good things.” And so, you have to train yourself not to stop at creation, but to push to what creation is meant to point you to.
There's a great example in scripture, John 6, where Jesus feeds five-thousand people with a boy's lunch, and the crowd wants to make him king, and he runs from them and hides. You think, “Why is he doing that? He came to be king!” Well, when they find him, they're confused and wonder why he ran away, and he said, “Well, you're just seeking me because your bellies are full.” And then he goes on to say, “I'm the bread of life, unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you won't enter the kingdom of heaven.” He's saying, “You've eaten the bread, but you've missed what the bread points to.” In fact, the word for that miracle in that passage is ‘semeion.’ It's the word for ‘sign.’ That bread is a sign of something. My dumb example, it's like driving your children to Disney World for a Disney World vacation, awesome, wonderful time, and you stop at the first sign that says Disney World and you have your vacation there. We do that all the time with the physical world. If you scramble an egg, which was a recent embryo, and it's beautiful and tasty, you ought to throw your head back and thank God that he exists and that he loves you. And what you need to do is develop that spiritual habit.
Now, my experience is when I'm doing that all the time, every day, I look at the tree, I thank the Lord for his presence; then my devotions aren't dry because I'm spending time with somebody that enthralls me. That blows my mind! And I have all kinds of things to thank him for because I've seen a bunch of them that day. The biggest danger, of not going beyond the physical thing and seeing the beauty of the one behind the physical thing, it’s just a life of God-forgetfulness. And when you're God-forgetful, then you are more driven by your passions and by your desires. You're more given to complaint than gratitude. You're more demanding than serving.
There's just a whole list of negative fruit that comes out of that. The grateful people are the most wonderful people to live with. Grateful people are generous. Grateful people are forgiving. Grateful people tend to be loving. Grateful people want to help you to see the things that they're grateful for, too. And that's the kind of person I want to be.
We have adult children; when I enter the door, I want them to see a dad who's just full of joy! And when I'm God-forgetful, that's not where I go. When I'm God-forgetful, it's easier for me to number my complaints than count my blessings, and to look over the fence and be envious, and then be demanding and be unthankful. That creates all kinds of problems in my life and my relationships.
We, yesterday, spent a wonderful day with our daughter and her family. And, we had laughter, and we had good food, but Luella and I prayed for that day going into it, and on the way home, we weren't saying, “Well, that was phenomenal food!” Well, we did say that a little bit. But what we said is, “How much does God love us that he gave us such a good day?” There were so many blessings in that day. We were walking along the sidewalk with our three-year-old granddaughter, and she looks at us and says, “Grandma, Grandpa, this is a perfect day!” How could you not just love God for that moment? She had no idea that she was representing the presence of God in our lives at that moment, but she was.
And so, if every day, sex, money, food, friendship, nature is reminding you of God's presence and his power and love and goodness, then when you meet with him in the morning, it's not going to be dry.
BF: Paul wrote a book, from which this question obviously arose, called “Awe: Why It Matters For Everything We Think, Say, & Do.” That book, plus a free discussion guide that you can use with others, is available at paultripp.com/Awe. May you live in awe of God this weekend. Don't forget to look around and see all the signs that God put in creation to remind you of himself.
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