Oh Wow! Oh Wow! Oh Wow!

Steve Jobs' last words before his death and a recent clip from "Through the Wormhole" has Brad and Wayne talking about the joy of living in wonder at the reality of God that easily transcends all of our powers of reason. If our scientists can't see, measure, or understand 95% of what makes up our universe, then maybe God is more intimately involved in his creation each day than we know. Embracing his mystery beyond our own ability to understand, is a far more freeing way to live than getting stuck in our frustrations when God doesn't do what we want or expect. They also talk more about prayer and how Jesus said we can connect with this transcendent God in the simplest expressions of our love and desire for him.

Podcast Links:
Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman
Order A Man Like No Other from one of these three websites: Murry's website, Windblown Media, or Lifestream
Order In Season: Embracing the Father's Process of Fruitfulness from Lifestream

21 Comments

  1. I was watching the same type of show on PBS NOVA “The Fabric of the Cosmos”. When I heard them talk about “Dark Energy”, an energy that is unknown and unmeasurable. I thought that this dark energy is either a part of God or something created by God to hold everything in the universe together and perform his will in the universe.

  2. Living in wonder is a perfect antidote to control….whether it be trying to control others and being controlled by others.

    This is my favorite excerpt from the film The Human Experience

    “The more mature person is not the one who has all the questions settled. The more mature person is the person who enters ever more deeply, ever more farther and farther and farther into the mystery and into the wonder.

    If life is not lived at this level, it is lived at a superficial level. And whoever has the power to control your superficial level will rule over you.”

  3. Brad, small correction – expansion of the universe isn’t slowing down, it’s speeding up. For centuries, scientists thought the universe was eternal and fixed. That just changed 80 years ago. Then after the big bang and expansion became the dominant view, scientists assumed that expansion was slowing down, but further investigation has shown that it is accelerating.

  4. More wonder, this in a flock of starlings painting the sky. Someone sent this to me today and I find it worth the wonder:

    utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=SocialMedia

  5. Hey guys, Just a thought on the subject of “prayer”. The so-called christian establishment has bastardized the “act” and turned into some form of arm twisting. To me, it’s just a free-willed give and take between my CREATOR and me, no matter what form it takes. Believe it or not I don’t have to “ask” HIM for anything, after all HE is the best part me! I am HIS creation made to live free in HIS loving arms. Go ahead, cast aside religion and press in to HIS loving embrace. Be not afraid to live free in the sweetness of HIS amazing grace! Gman.

  6. Reminds me another of my favorite quotes.

    “It’s strange to be here. The mystery never leaves you alone.” John O

  7. Hello Wayne & Brad, have been listening to your podcasts and Wayne’s transition series for a number of weeks now. I am greatly helped and blessed by them. Thank you guys so very much. You are an encouragement on my journey into the freedom of knowing the Truth/Jesus. I seems to me that He likes to live where there is freedom not in caged environments like those man-made structures and philosophies that our hearts and minds get so easily trapped into. I think that there is an awesome freedom the bible is talking about. You may remember something about creation longing to be brought into the the glorious freedom of the sons of God.
    On another note, (still about freedom though) have you ever heard of the ‘Myth Busters’ on the discovery channel? You remind me a bit of them and I mean that in a positive way. Besides the content of you conversations on the podcasts I really enjoy listening to your banter and laughs which reminds me of that unique californain querkiness (lovely craziness).
    Many thanks, many blessings! Pieter

  8. The story of the universe is much grander than we will ever be able to perceive. We have just begun our journey of understanding.

    Recently, our perception of the universe has radically changed. We live in a totally different universe today than what scientists could have imagined just two decades ago. According to astrophysicist Joel R. Primack (see note below), everything that we can see, all of the 100’s of billions of stars contained in our galaxy and all of the 100’s of billions of galaxies outside of ours (along with all the gas, and dust and planets contained within these galaxies) only comprises less than one half of one percent!!! of the total matter in the universe. In other words we predominantly live in an invisible universe. It is composed of something that we have not been able to observe (dark matter). This is a picture of a new universe. In a very real sense we have just discovered the universe!!!!

    What do the innumerable scientific discovers of the recent past have to do with being a follower of Christ? I don’t know, but why don’t you ask him.

    Okay, I can’t help myself. I’ll give you my best guess. God is talking louder to the generations alive today (through the wonders of his creation) than he has to all of the combined previous generations of mankind. He is really trying to get our attention. In fact, he’s shouting at us. If you promise not to have me institutionalized, I can even give you his exact words. He’s saying “Look who I am!”

    If we can comprehend him through the vastness and complexity of his creation, we can better understand the significance of what was accomplished 2,000 years ago. Today, Christ being the “Creator of All” has taken on a magnitude of wonder that could not have been envisioned a few millenniums ago. The early follower’s were eyewitnesses to his miracles but we have been given the privilege of being observers of his endless wonder.

    God is shouting at us today. Are we listening?

    Note – Joel R. Primack is the main author and developer of the cold dark matter theory. This theory has now become the standard model that is widely accepted by astronomers. In case anyone is interested, Primack gave four public lectures at Yale in 2009 that can be observed at the following link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akQfew1EGXY

  9. To add to Russ Reese’s comment above, the Nobel Prize winners in Physics for 2011 were S. Perlmutter, B. Schmidt and A. Riess for their discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe through observations on distant supernovae.

    I may be weird and full of dark matter (the kind cows make), but I find the other end (microscopic) to be even more fascinating.

  10. I concur with Jim. The telescopic is obviously astonishing and has rightly received a lot of press. However, the wonder of the unseen world within (the quantum) is for all practical purposes ignored. In this realm, extraordinarily small dots are rhythmically embracing one another to form all that we can see. Let’s try to envision how small they are.

    If my memory is properly serving me, there are more atoms is one cup of water than there are cups of water in all the oceans of the world. Spend time dwelling on this because it deserves a WOW.

    Let’s sink deeper and venture into the subatomic world as illustrated by the String Theory. This theory postulates that if you scale up one atom to the size of our solar system (the nucleus represented by our sun and the outskirts of the electron cloud being the edge of the solar system), that an individual string (a particle of energy) would be approximately the size of a tree!! To fully grasp this, consider the size of our solar system. It would take 48,000 years of travel at highway speeds (70 mph) to drive from one end to the other. This deserves multiple WOW’s.

    The entire visible universe is made up of dots (atoms and subatomic particles): you, me, the planets, the stars, and the galaxies. But let’s concentrate on you by considering the example of the amount of atoms contained in a cup of water. You are mainly made up of water. You do the math, how many cups are contained in you? And then contemplate the number of atoms per cup. This is who you are in the reality of the physical.

    All of your dots are working intimately together to make you who you are. Now imagine all the other dots that make up every other animate or inanimate object. Then consider that there is not one maverick molecule (or atom) in the entire universe. God not only fabricated each and every dot, he also has positioned each of them in a fine-tuned rhythmic orbit and has continuously sustained there flight from the beginning of time.

    Here are a few lines from a poem that speaks towards the micro.

    “Next descend into the wonder of your unseen world within, where His minute particles play.
    Venture into this veiled realm, where points concealed embrace; into the lowly “Kingdom of the Nano,” that frames all that you see.
    Then dwell oh creature into their rhythm, as they form your very being.

    At long last place your site within His perpetual power, as He positions each point in space. Then marvel at this Master who maintains their majestic flight.

    Dwell oh creature of clay; once more dwell upon your Master placed before you. Yet again peer into His endless wonder, so that your vision may be improved. For someone as finite as you, cannot comprehend space, nor time, without end.”

  11. My question about the 15% we think we know is: How much of that is wrong?

    I am far more content living inside of God’s big heart than trying to cram Him into mine. Or into my brain, for that matter.

    He is so big. We are so small.

    And I’m okay with that…

  12. Ken, you have the most important part down. He’s really, really big and we’re not. Here are a few thoughts on this subject.

    Approximately a decade ago I heard a message entitled “The Significance of Our Insignificance”. I can’t remember anything about it except for the title and that the main thrust was on the enormity of Creation. The vastness of the heavens continues to take my breath away.

    From our perspective, the celestial sphere upon which we travel is massive. Yet considering the whole of creation, the earth is just an indistinguishable piece of cosmic dust floating in the vastness space. How insignificant does that make us?

    Our significance is actually accentuated by our physical insignificance. The creator of enormity came down to our piece of cosmic dust. He didn’t come down just to take in the sights, he came to visit us. That alone speaks volumes regarding his nature and the significance he places on us. But then the creator of all did the most extraordinary thing in the history of the cosmos, he offer up his life. Wow. The angels had to step back in awe and wonder as these events played out before them. They possibly even whispered among themselves, “What’s he doing?”

    Another way of viewing this is to consider the most complex and incomprehensible thing that he created in all of the cosmos. It’s not the stars or the galaxies, nor the novas or the black holes. It’s not even the dark energy, the dark matter, the anti-matter or even the “no matter”:-)? Significantly, the most complex thing in the entire universe is us; more specifically, the human brain. Einstein summed it up this way, “The most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible.”

    Now to your question about the validity of the 15%. At this specific point in time, that is if time even exits:-), these percentages are mankinds best guess, and they are all over the board. Let me illustrate this by switching gears.

    You have probably heard that there are 100 billion stars in our galaxy. I’ve heard other estimates as high as 500 billion. Why the huge difference? Because we will never know! It’s all a guess (a good one, but still a guess) because our galaxy is so enormous and we can only see a small fraction of it due to the dust and gas clouds and stars blocking our view. It’s like being in the middle of the Amazon rain forest, surrounded by trees, trying to calculate the total number of trees in the forest. It’s an impossible task.

    Much of the information that exists about our galaxy is taken from studies of other galaxies in our “neck of the woods” because we don’t have a very good view of ours and, in my opinion, never will. In order to properly view of our galaxy we would have to travel outside of it. This distance is unimaginable.

    To help illustrate the size of our galaxy let’s just travel to the closet star to our solar system. I can’t get my mind around light years of travel so I’ll demonstrate this by indicating the time it would take to drive this distance at highway speeds, namely 70 mph. You would have to set aside 40 million years! (give or take a few thousand years) to visit the closest star, driving 24/7 with no potty breaks or time off for your birthday. That would compute to 400 thousand lifetimes of travel if you lived to be 100! And that’s to the nearest star. With this in mind, try to visualize the grandness of a galaxy that has 100 to 500 billion other destinations to visit.

    So our galaxy is really huge and contains an immense amount of matter. Then add to the “pot” that there are a minimum of 100 billion galaxies (again a guess) in the KNOWN universe and that the distance between these galaxies is so enormous that it would make the drive to our closest star seem like a leisurely walk to the park.

    Now try to conceptualize the totality of matter in the visible universe. Again, it’s beyond our imagination. But wait, it’s even much, much grander than that because we are now being informed that the part of the universe that we can see, which is enormous, is only a small fraction of the total matter that exists (a guess that I heard was ½ of 1%). Wow, he’s awesome. Way to go God.

    Ken, this is all guesswork due to the enormity and complexity creation. But closely consider what this has to say about the guy who created this entire marvel. Just sit back and relax and take in the awe and wonder as mankind feebly tries to figure out his workmanship.

  13. Ron,

    I love that phrase, “The Significance of Our Insignificance”. The wonders of the universe are indeed vast and are fascinating to consider, but in truth they really do not touch my life in any meaningful way. But the wonders of His love for me – now that touches me deeply, even though I will never comprehend it.

  14. Ken, the mind numbing vastness and complexity of His workmanship are both bold witnesses to his wonder. This same person who numbs our mind with enormity also willingly allowed himself to be placed on a timber. That has meaning and shows a depth of love that we will spend the rest of our lives trying to understand.

  15. I have a friend who follows the Seventh Day Adventist interpretation of scripture for the most part. I asked him what he made of “Wow” moments like Steve Jobs’. For the uninitiated, the Adventists believe that the idea of a ghost or spirit leaving the body and going to Heaven at the time of physical death is nonscriptural. Rather, the person is in a state of “sleep” until resurrected at a later time. This is pretty clearly plotted out in Revelations, but of course its a matter of how literally you take the language to be.

    So my friend offered this speculation:

    “One idea, and epecially in Stephens (book of Acts) case, is that it is immensly comforting for those who have served the Lord to have their blessed hope of Our Abba appear to them in passing. It occurs to me that the first thing we probaly see in our lives is our parents. I think it is God’s own way for some to have the last thing they see be their Father in Heaven.”

    Thought this was interesting.

  16. I was really struck by the part where you talk about people praying eloquently as if God is impressed by it. I remember I was on a missions trip and my prayer/teaching partner (who I had a crush on) commented me on my eloquent prayers. While I was motivated by a desire to please God, part of it was me trying to impress her. =)

    Anyway, now when I try to pray, most times I don’t even use words. I think my huge sighs, groans, and even once in a while a word of profanity conveys it all. I just heard Wayne mention in Romans the “groans that words cannot express” that the Spirit utters, and that’s totally where I’m at.

    I was told to pray for Thanksgiving dinner and it was a far cry from my usual flowing, poetic wordings. I think it’s because I’m in a place now where praying out loud is awkward because my relationship with God is personal. Not that I can’t talk about him with anyone else, but there’s no need to make a spectacle of my faith in order to “win the lost”.

    I’m slowly but surely starting to ease into living out of the safety of knowing God loves me no matter how much I stumble through life.

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