Sharpening Your Sense of Wonder as a Leader

Change your pace, change your place, change your perspective.

The fastest way to kill wonder is to never leave your routine.

We get caught in the grind—doing good work, faithful work—but we stop feeling the awe. The grind becomes normal, and normalcy dulls our ability to see God’s hand in it.

I heard a phrase recently that’s stuck with me:

Change of pace + change of place = new perspective.

It lines up with something I wrote about in my book—but more than that, it feels like a spiritual principle. Think of David—called to be king, but constantly driven into the wilderness. Think of Jesus—retreating to lonely places. Think of Jonah—getting swallowed into a whole new place just to see God clearly again.

Sometimes, the only way to hear God freshly is to step outside of your normal.

New pace. New place. New eyes.

I’ve been doing a fast read-through of the Bible lately—not to slow down, but to see the bigger picture. It’s stirred my soul again. It’s awakened the wonder. And it reminded me:

You don’t stumble into new perspective. You have to force you to have new perspectives.

Sharpening your sense of wonder is a discipline spiritual leaders need to have.

So what about you?

Do you need to take a mini-retreat?
Work in a new space?
Visit another church to get fresh ideas?
Switch your rhythm?

You were made for goodness,
Phil