“What do you want for dinner tonight?” I knowingly asked my wife, Erin. I was pretty sure I knew her answer beforehand since we had decided to cap a long week with a Friday night meal out with the kids. With a whimsical look she replied “Mexican food!” I knew it! Even more predictable than her answer were my next comments about how we were probably too late, there’d be a long wait, the kids would be getting to bed too late and how I was tired. (Blame it on whatever enneagram number I am – I’m working on it!) After realizing how absurd all of that sounded I told everyone to hop in the car because dad is cool, spontaneous, fun and ready to get some Mexican food.

Stomachs grumbled and mouths watered as we weaved through traffic nearing our favorite Mexican joint. We pulled up and noticed this place was packed! After riding through the full parking lot and scoping out the crowd of people formed in the lobby we decided to head to our second favorite spot. Our second choice seemed to be the rest of our town’s first choice. It was even busier than the last restaurant! “Okay, no problem I’m spontaneous and fun right? Let’s just head to the next place. This is no big deal,” I thought to myself. We called our third choice and almost drove all the way to the place before they took me off hold and answered my question with, “It will be about a 35 – 45 minute wait.”

Admittedly, the laid back acting role I had gotten into earlier in the night had completely collapsed after we swung and missed at our third Mexican restaurant. I was back to clock watching and stomach grumbling. Erin wasn’t defeated as easily and we drove to our fourth destination. We’d been to this restaurant a few times but it never wowed us before. It was located in the one of those shopping centers with a few too many vacant areas that hadn’t been leased in years. The stucco on the building looked like it needed pressure washing and the parking lot was practically empty. To say the least, this place was not aesthetically pleasing. There were only two people in the whole restaurant and although this was good for us, I had to wonder why no one was here on a Friday night. I got back into my acting role and we trotted inside.

The host sat us at the front of the restaurant and we opened our menus. The next comments by our son’s Knox (3) and Eli (1) hit me like a ton of bricks. Knox exclaimed with a huge smile, “I love this place!” I looked at him with a raised eyebrow thinking, really? He literally clapped his hands as the chips were brought out and dove right in. With eyes as wide as saucers, Eli looked up and pointed at the “Open” sign glowing green in the window and shouted a drawn out version of “wow.” Knox pointed to a picture of the beach hanging crooked on the wall that I believe was drawn by a preschooler and shouted, “Look, Dad! The beach!” Knox made several more comments about the pretty blue paint color, chips, red sauce (salsa) and the incredible view we had of the car wash across the street from our window. Eli was drinking water from a Styrofoam cup that he loved so much he couldn’t put down. These kids were in awe. I was confused.

Psalm 33:8 Let the whole world fear the Lord, and let everyone stand in awe of Him.

I couldn’t help but ponder what Jesus was speaking to me later that night about my own sense of awe. What was I in awe of? Where was I placing my awe? Had I lost that sense of wonder that my boys had in that restaurant? Admittedly, it had been a while since I had stopped and stood in awe of our mighty creator. Our hectic lives have a way of masking the beauty of God sometimes. It’s as if we can physically see God’s work and creation but no longer be moved by it. In his book, “Awe: Why It Matters for Everything We Think, Say, and Do”, Paul Trip calls this the sad state of yawning in the face of glory. Ouch!

So what can we do to wake ourselves up from this spiritual sleep?

• Pray about it – Ask God to wake us up. Lord – help me to see the awe of our creator more than that of “created” things.
• Talk about it. Intentionally talk about something God is doing or has done with a friend, child, spouse, family member, or co-worker every single day.
• Write about it. Put words on paper when you hear about something God is doing.
• Look for it.
  • Grab a bible! Read about His miracles and go deeper in the His story.
  • Get outside and take in His creation.
  • Get in small group at church. Listen to testimonies of Jesus followers.

Simply put, God has His proper place in our lives when we are in awe of Him. It’s only when we let God take the backseat do we begin to lose the awe factor of Him. Sometimes it takes a night of driving all over town to find tacos to figure that out.

Just fishing with my daddy,

Ryan