Eugene Peterson, in his Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places, pp. 119-129, sets out a second element of cultivating fear of the Lord in creation. The first was Sabbath, upon which I posted some time in December, and the second is wonder. Ever wonder about wonder?
Everyone was suprised, no one did anything to prepare for it, marginal people play a central role, it took place quietly, and it evoked fear. And it should. “Fear-of-the-Lord is fear with the scary element deleted” (121).
How can we recover wonder?
We have deconstructed it. In the workplace. “Along the way the primacy of God and his work in our lives gives way ever so slightly to the primary of our work in God’s kingdom, and we begin thinking of ways that we can use God in what we are doing” (124). This is idolatry, “germs” of idolatry that will corrupt the whole. So, we package solutions and before long it becomes one fix after another — as we become “consumers of packaged spirituality” (125).
Technology promotes idolatry; deconstructs wonder. Impersonal things. Peterson thinks the primary place for spiritual formation is the workplace.