Lent 4 | 2025
Invitation to Wonder: Look for the Helpers
From now on, we regard no one from a human point of view…If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation…2 Corinthians 5:16-21 (read more Lenten Scripture)
In his scientific study on the emotion of awe, researcher Dr. Dacher Keltner asked his subject one question. “What is an experience of awe that you have had, when you encountered a vast mystery that transcends your understanding of the world?”
Keltner expected his subjects to find awe most often through encounters with nature or through religious practice.
But in fact, he discovered that the number one, most common experience of awe comes through witnessing other people’s courage, kindness, strength, or overcoming – what Keltner calls moral beauty. We feel wonder when we witness goodness in others: goodness of intention, bravery, selfless aid of others or even the courage to endure suffering.
Mr. Rogers once said, “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”
Fred Rogers was a Presbyterian minister and he viewed the world through the lens of faith. He might describe the helpers through the words of the prophet Isaiah, who exclaims,“How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” (52:7)
If you want to nurture awe, get out there and look for the helpers in your own sphere. They may be people you know well. They may be strangers on the street or in a coffee shop. They may be people who save lives, find cures, feed the hungry, collect trash, build houses, pick up the slack at work,run races for charity, who make the coffee in the church kitchen on Sundays. The helpers are everywhere.
Look for the people who believe and “call on the name of the Lord” in ways that extend beyond their personal, spiritual inner lives, who undertake morally beautiful actions on behalf of others, especially those in need.
People of Moral beauty are, I think, less plagued by perfectionism – the compulsion to get it all perfectly right and in control.In them we more often see a spirit of freedom, selflessness, risk and joy as they embody God’s hope in the world,walking alongside their neighbors and demonstrating God’s grace, solidarity, and love in their being and doing.
Let’s pay attention. Let’s look for the helpers – and experience the awe that just may liberate us to be helpers, too.
Take 4 minutes to ponder the question:
Where have you encountered helpers?
See if you can think of 7 specific examples, from heroic to humble.
Click here to hear an interview with Dacher Keltner on the science of awe.