For to me, to live is Christ … Philippians 1:21 NIV
Whatever captures your awe captures your attention.
Whatever captures your attention captures your affection.
Whatever captures your affection captures your life.
True story. Awe is never a neutral emotion. It is a powerful force, capturing the heart and mind and determining the trajectory of life. It is the progressive story of every life, whatever road is traveled and whatever the final destination.
Just take the example of a young man who sees the perfect girl and is filled with awe. She captures his attention. Then that young woman consumes his thoughts. He dreams about her, follows her, and tries to capture her attention as well. When she responds and spends time with him, she captures his affection. His heart beats fast just to be around her, and he is increasingly possessive of her. He wants to be with her constantly; he desires her affection to only be directed toward him. He declares his love for her and his hope to make her his partner for life.
She captured his awe, and it led to the capture of his life. If they are both integrity-filled, worthy, and committed people, the mutual capture leads to a marvelous life. But we all know relationships that don’t turn out well. When a person captures our awe and we fall in love, we choose partners that either make us or break us.
This process not only describes how we choose relationships, but it also illustrates how we spend our time and resources. It’s the way we choose careers and hobbies, how we become addicted, where we live and with whom we live – it describes the ways our lives are determined and defined. Awe is a soul longing that God placed within us to lead us to Him, but in our fallen and broken world, we often misplace and misdirect this longing. Whenever we lose the awe of God, the awe for which we were created, we lose our way. Nothing goes as God in His love intended for us – not because He punishes us, but because the focus of our awe-attention-affection-life is inadequate and incapable of bearing the weight of what only God can give.
Every day our hearts are being captured by the awe of something. If they are captured by the pursuit of a person, a career, success, self, or satisfaction of any lesser god than our Creator, we will eventually lose true awe and wonder. Our lives will become small, self-focused and endlessly driven. Paul said in Romans 1 that people became “utter fools” as they worshipped creation and created things rather than the Creator. But for him, his awe was focused on Christ.
For him, to live was Christ. His awe determined his amazing life.
- What captures my awe will determine my life. May it be Christ.