Has Christianity become boring to you? I love to be around people who come to the faith later in life because they seem to have an enthusiasm that most do not. People who were raised in the church often lose that zeal as they age. That can be a problem for the church if the majority of its attenders are not all that excited to be there.
Many would argue that the church has plateaued because of theological compromise or doctrinal anemia (a serious problem, to be sure), but according to Trevin Wax, that is not the number one issue. In the opening line to his book The Thrill of Orthodoxy, Wax wrote, “The church faces her biggest challenge not when new errors start to win but when old truths no longer wow.”
Errors creeping in to a church is never a good thing, and one of my passions is to zealously defend the truth from heresy, especially the subtleties that sneak in under cover. But, according to Wax, a worse problem is when we no longer wow—when we lose that sense of holy wonder. Have you lost that “wow”?
Let me ask it like this: have you gotten used to being saved? Do you walk around with excitement that you are a heaven-bound child of God, or does that thought rarely cross your mind? If churches were filled with people who have lost their wow, how can they truly worship? If the unsaved show up, are they inspired by a group of happy worshippers, or are they turned off by the dull monotony of a complacent congregation?
Wax went on to write, “Familiarity is the enemy of wonder.” When we become so familiar with being saved, our wow and wonder lose their edge. Maybe you recognize right now that this describes you. You have lost your wow. So what should you do about it?
Try to remind yourself of the day of your salvation. Do you remember how you felt when it dawned on you that you were separated from God because of your sins, and you knew you were guilty? But then you learned of God’s amazing grace through the sacrifice of Jesus, so you called upon His name. Do you remember that feeling of relief, of forgiveness, of joy?
And then get in the Bible. Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the word of God is living and active.” It is not a dry and dusty book, but fresh words that speak to us each time we open its cover.
Sometimes we need to pause and remind ourselves of what we used to feel. Forget the familiarity. Go back to when it was all brand new and allow yourself to feel that wow again.
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