January (Web-only) 2004

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Ravi Zacharias has been described by Chuck Colson as "the great apologist of our time." He has defended the faith in settings including Harvard, Princeton, and Cambridge. He's written best-selling books including Jesus Among Other Gods, Sense and Sensuality: Jesus Talks to Oscar Wilde on the Pursuit of Pleasure, Cries of the Heart, The Broken Promise: A Tale of Guilt and Grace, The Lotus and the Cross: Jesus Talks with Buddha, Can Man Live Without God?, and Is Your Church Ready?: Motivating Leaders to Live an Apologetic Life and hosts a radio show, Let My People Think. His newest book is entitled Recapture the Wonder, published by Integrity.

When you start talking about the definition of wonder, you say it's important for us to understand what it isn't, and then to try to get a handle on what it is. How do you define wonder?

This is probably the most difficult aspect, so I put it in one paragraph. Here's what I wrote:

Wonder is that possession of the mind that enchants the emotions while never surrendering reason. It is a grasp on reality that does not need constant high points in order to be maintained, nor is it made vulnerable by the low points of life's struggle. It sees in the ordinary the extraordinary, and finds in the extraordinary the re-affirmations for what it already knows. Wonder blasts the soul, that is the spiritual and the skeleton, the body, the material. Wonder interprets life through the eyes of eternity while enjoying the moment, but never lets the moment's revision exhaust the eternal. Wonder makes life's enchantment real and knows when and where enchantment must lie. Wonder knows how to read the shadows because it knows the nature of light. Wonder knows that while you cannot look at the light, you cannot ...