Awe Every Day: Finding More in Everyday Wonder
A symphony swelling to its final note. A child saying their first word. An endless ocean stretching before you. A stranger risking everything to save someone else. Sometimes a moment stops you cold, and you can’t quite name what you feel. The word you’re looking for is awe.
Awe is the feeling of being in the presence of something so vast and mysterious that you don’t yet fully understand it. For those who believe in God, it often feels like a glimpse of the divine breaking into ordinary time. Yet packed routines, work and family stress, and constant screen time can make moments of awe feel out of reach.
The good news is that awe is closer than you think. When you seek it intentionally, it brings real, measurable benefits to your well-being and relationships.
Why Awe Matters: The Benefits Are Real
Research points to a wide range of benefits when you pause to experience awe. These include:
Physical benefits. Awe is linked to lower levels of inflammatory markers in the body. Chronically elevated inflammation is associated with cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and depression.
Psychological benefits. Awe is connected to greater life satisfaction, increased humility, better mood, and sharper critical thinking.
Social benefits. People who experience awe tend to become more generous, more cooperative, and more connected to those around them.
The “small self” effect. Awe quietly dials down the ego in a healthy way. You feel less consumed by your own worries and more attuned to something larger than yourself.
The science is compelling, and it echoes an ancient invitation: “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth” (Psalm 46:10). Stillness makes room for wonder, and wonder draws us closer to the One who made it all.
The Eight Wonders of Life
In his book Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life, Dacher Keltner, a best-selling author and leading expert on human emotion, defines awe as the feeling of being in the presence of something vast that transcends your current understanding of the world.
What counts as “vast” varies across cultures and life stages. It can be physical, temporal, challenging, or even unsettling. By analyzing 2,600 personal stories from around the world, Keltner’s research identified eight wonders of life:
Moral beauty
Collective effervescence
Nature
Music
Visual design
Spirituality and religion
Life and death
Epiphany
Notably absent from these stories was the world of materialism, money, acquisition, and status. Awe consistently pointed people away from the things they own and toward the things of God. Scripture said it long ago: “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands” (Psalm 19:1).
Small Habits That Open the Door to Awe
You don’t need a mountaintop to experience awe. These simple practices can help anyone begin:
Limit distractions. Put down your phone and create space for something greater to capture your attention.
Breathe. Begin with slow, deliberate breaths to settle into a more receptive, prayerful mindset.
Take an awe walk. Even a weekly 15-minute walk has been shown to boost positive emotions and reduce daily distress. Track your progress however you like. If stickers lift your mood when tracking, go for it.
Pay attention. Notice what gives you goosebumps. That’s your personal awe data.
Keep an awe journal. Once you start recording moments of wonder, you’ll find yourself looking for them more often. Awe is reinforcing.
As Job was told, “Stand still, and consider the wondrous works of God” (Job 37:14). These practices shouldn’t feel like chores, but like any good habit, they grow through intention and consistency.
Better Together: Awe as a Shared Practice
Awe deepens when you share it. Moving together, witnessing courage together, and exploring big ideas together strengthens the bonds between us. Hebrews 10:24 encourages us to “consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds,” and shared wonder does exactly that.
At AWE Together, this is what our community is built for: finding and celebrating what is vast, meaningful, and worth pausing for, side by side. Join us, share your moments of wonder, and discover how much brighter awe becomes when you experience it together.
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