Diagnosing And Changing Organizational Culture

1. Humans are hardwired for awe as a lifelong pursuit

What all these people share in common is that they are human beings, and because they are human beings, they are hardwired for awe.

Inborn human drive. Every human being is an active, relentless seeker of wonder. From a baby fascinated by her toes to an old man captivated by beautiful music, we are all driven by a deep, inescapable desire to be amazed. This pursuit of wonder is not a hobby; it is the fundamental operating system of the human soul.

The search for satisfaction. This internal hunger is not a design flaw; it is a God-given capacity meant to lead us to the Creator. However, because we live in a broken world, we often try to satisfy this infinite longing with finite things. We look for ultimate satisfaction in places that were never designed to provide it:

• We seek awe in expensive meals, sports cars, and career success.
• We look for wonder in relationships, entertainment, and material possessions.
• We experience deep dissatisfaction when these temporary thrills fail to satisfy our souls.

Awe shapes our direction. Where you look for awe ultimately determines the trajectory of your life. If your primary source of wonder is horizontal (the creation) rather than vertical (the Creator), you will live in a state of perpetual, exhausting chase. Only when our awe is anchored in God do our hearts find the peace, rest, and security they crave.

2. The war of the heart is a battle over misplaced awe

Between the 'already' of the sin of Adam and Eve and the 'not yet' of the final redemption, a war wages over who or what will rule and control the awe capacity...

The ultimate battleground. The most significant conflict in human history is not fought on geopolitical battlefields, but on the quiet turf of the human heart. It is a daily, moment-by-moment war over what will capture and control our capacity for wonder. This war determines everything we think, say, and do.

Awe gone wrong. Since the fall in the Garden of Eden, humanity has suffered from "awe wrongedness" (AWN). Instead of being driven to God in worship, our awe gets kidnapped by the very things God created to point us to Him. The biblical narrative is a tragic chronicle of this misplaced wonder:

• Adam and Eve chose the desire to "be like God" over submission to Him.
• Cain's murder of Abel stemmed from a heart devoid of true vertical awe.
• The Israelites built a golden calf, attributing their rescue to a physical object.

The need for rescue. We cannot win this war through sheer willpower or moral resolve because the disease of misplaced awe lives inside us. Our only hope is a Rescuer who can recapture our hearts and realign our desires with His glory. The work of Jesus is fundamentally a rescue mission to reclaim our capacity for awe.

3. Awe of self inevitably replaces awe of the Creator

In the heart of a sinner, awe of God is very quickly replaced by awe of self.

The great exchange. When we lose our vertical focus, we do not simply become aweless; we immediately put ourselves at the center of our universe. We become self-sovereigns, demanding that life, people, and even God bend to our personal desires. This self-worship is the DNA of sin.

Symptoms of self-worship. This subtle idolatry manifests in the mundane decisions of our daily lives. We become demanding, impatient, and easily offended because we believe the world should revolve around our comfort and schedule. We see this in several destructive patterns:

• We write our own rules and step over God's boundaries.
• We manipulate others to serve our personal agendas.
• We experience deep relational conflict because we personalize things that are not about us.

The cure of grace. Jesus died not just to forgive our sins, but to deliver us from the claustrophobic prison of living for ourselves. True freedom begins when we are humbled by His grandeur and step down from our self-made thrones. Only when God is in His rightful place can we love others selflessly.

4. Awe amnesia blinds us to God's daily gloryscope

Every beautiful and amazing sight, sound, color, texture, taste, and touch of the created world has gloryscopic intention built into it.

The world as a gloryscope. God intentionally designed the physical universe to reflect His invisible attributes, power, and divine nature. Creation is a magnificent, highly calibrated instrument meant to magnify the Creator's glory and keep us in constant wonder. It is a daily, visual sermon of His majesty.

The tragedy of blindness. Despite being surrounded by daily miracles, we suffer from a spiritual amnesia that makes us yawn in the face of glory. We enjoy the gifts of creation—a beautiful sunset, a delicious meal, a warm relationship—while completely forgetting the Giver. This blindness leads to severe spiritual consequences:

• We treat the physical world as an end in itself rather than a signpost.
• We become bored, uninspired, and spiritually cold.
• We experience "spiritual anorexia" by feeding on the nonnutritive crumbs of the world.

Mnemonic devices of grace. God has embedded reminders of Himself everywhere to rescue us from our forgetfulness. The daily rising sun reminds us of His faithfulness, the storm of His power, and the earthly father of His loving care. We must pray for eyes to see these daily signposts.

5. Transgression is an awe problem before it is a law problem

When awe of anything but God kidnaps and controls your heart, you simply will not stay inside God’s boundaries.

The root of disobedience. We often treat sin as a mere behavioral issue, a failure to keep a set of rules. However, the Bible reveals that our outward transgressions are always the harvest of a heart that has lost its awe of God. Obedience is not about duty; it is about worship.

The personal nature of sin. Breaking God's law is never an impersonal infraction; it is spiritual adultery, a breaking of our covenant relationship with Him. When we disobey, we are actively choosing to worship a replacement savior over the true Lord. Our hearts wander because we are no longer captivated by His beauty:

• Eve transgressed because she was seduced by the promise of autonomous wisdom.
• David defeated Goliath because his heart was captured by God's size, not the giant's.
• We give in to temptation when the immediate pleasure of the creation outshines the glory of the Creator.

The limits of the law. Because transgression is an awe problem, the law has no power to rescue us from it. The law can expose our sin and show us the right path, but only transforming grace can capture our hearts and make us willing to obey. True obedience only grows in the soil of worship.

6. Chronic complaining is the verbalization of awelessness

If praise is celebrating God’s awesome glory, then complaint is antipraise.

The theology of grumbling. Complaining is rarely just a reaction to difficult circumstances; it is a direct, street-level critique of God's character and plan. When we grumble, we are functionally questioning whether God is good, powerful, and in control. It is the voice of a heart suffering from vertical amnesia.

The wilderness warning. The Israelites on the banks of the Jordan River refused to enter the Promised Land because they were paralyzed by fear and complaint. They sat in their tents and accused the God who had split the Red Sea of hating them. Their grumbling exposed a deep spiritual failure:

• They compared their own limited strength to the size of the giants.
• They forgot the awesome power and faithfulness God had displayed in Egypt.
• Their lack of vertical awe resulted in a generation missing out on God's blessing.

Cultivating vertical rest. To defeat a complaining spirit, we must stop letting our circumstances define our view of God. Instead, we must allow the awesome reality of who God is to interpret the hardships we face, turning our grumbling into gratitude. Awe produces a heart of satisfied rest.

7. Materialism is a futile search for spiritual life in physical things

We cannot control our lust for things because our capacity for awe has been kidnapped.

The material trap. Materialism is not fundamentally a "stuff" problem; it is a spiritual search for life in the wrong place. We buy, collect, and consume because we mistakenly believe that physical possessions can give us peace, identity, and satisfaction. It is an act of spiritual futility.

The limits of creation. God created the physical world for our sustenance and pleasure, but He never designed it to be our savior. When we ask the creation to do what only the Creator can do, we inevitably fall into a cycle of addiction and debt. The physical world cannot deliver what we seek:

• We experience a short-lived emotional buzz from a new purchase.
• We quickly become dissatisfied and look for the next big thing.
• We accumulate debt and clutter while our souls remain completely empty.

The call to worship. The only way to break the power of material lust is to move from "remembrance awe" to "worship awe." We must allow the beauty of the physical world to point us to the far greater, soul-satisfying beauty of the Lord. Earth will never be our savior.

8. Spiritual growth is the progressive recapture of our awe

Sanctification is really about the grace of God doing for us what we can’t do for ourselves: recapture our awe for God and God alone.

The goal of sanctification. Spiritual growth is much deeper than learning correct theology or adopting better habits. It is the lifelong, Holy Spirit-driven process of reclaiming the motivational system of our hearts from the grip of self-worship. It is a war of reconciliation.

Two portraits of life. Galatians 5 contrasts the "works of the flesh" with the "fruit of the Spirit," illustrating the difference between a self-ruled life and a God-ruled life. When we live in awe of ourselves, we produce conflict, envy, and moral decay. When we live in awe of God, our character is transformed:

• Awe of self leads to sexual impurity, fits of anger, and division.
• Awe of God, cultivated by the Spirit, produces love, joy, peace, and patience.
• True self-control is the natural byproduct of a heart captured by a greater glory.

The work of the Spirit. We cannot change our own hearts or force ourselves to grow. We must humbly surrender to the indwelling Holy Spirit, who works from the inside out to kill our self-glory and plant a life-altering wonder of God. Growth is the fruit of His grace.

9. We must reject "two-drawer" living for a unified, God-centered worldview

Isaiah 40 is not comfort literature; it’s worldview literature.

The danger of compartmentalization. Many Christians live a "two-drawer" existence, separating their "real life" (work, family, money) from their "spiritual life" (church, Bible study). This division robs their faith of its transformative power and leaves them functionally atheistic during the week. It is a distorted way of living.

The Isaiah 40 lens. The prophet Isaiah presents a breathtaking, mind-expanding vision of God's absolute sovereignty, power, and care. This passage is meant to be the pair of glasses through which we view and interpret every single detail of our lives. It confronts our practical atheism:

• God holds the waters of the earth in the hollow of His hand.
• The nations are like a drop in a bucket compared to His greatness.
• He brings princes to nothing and calls the stars by name.

A unified life. When we wear the glasses of this majestic worldview, we no longer separate the sacred from the secular. Every decision, relationship, and daily task is infused with the comforting, stabilizing reality of God's awesome presence. We live in one drawer called "life," ruled entirely by Him.

10. Parenting and work must shift from self-glory to ambassadorial stewardship

You have been chosen to visibly represent the authority of God on earth in the lives of your children.

Ambassadorial parenting. Parenting is not a behavior-control project designed to make our lives easier or build our reputation. It is an ambassadorial calling where we are meant to make the invisible, gracious authority of God visible to our children. We must represent His character, not our own anger.

Redeeming our work. Similarly, our careers are not platforms for personal achievement, power, or affluence. Work is a divine stewardship, a daily opportunity to employ God-given gifts to serve His kingdom and reflect His creative glory. We must guard against finding our identity in our jobs:

• We must reject the temptation to find our identity in our job titles or success.
• We must refuse to sacrifice our families on the altar of career advancement.
• We must view our workplace as a primary arena for worship and ministry.

Living for a bigger story. Both in the home and in the office, we are called to step out of our little kingdoms of one. When our hearts are captured by the awe of God, we find our true identity in Him, freeing us to parent and work with humility, rest, and joy.

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