Bible Connection Podcast: The Wonder of God with Harris III

Bible Connection Podcast: The Wonder of God with Harris III

By the time he turned 21, Haris III had made over a million dollars performing magic. By the age of 22, he lost it all. Going through that process forced him to question many things about the world and his life. Those questions led him on a faith journey where he learned how important it is to maintain a sense of wonder and a sense that there is something more and greater in the world.

SPOTIFY | LIBSYN

Harris III

Harris shares with the Bible Connection Podcast how important it is to know real truth and real joy so you do not fall for fakes, conterfeits, and deceptions. He stresses the importance of reading and memorizing Scripture, to write God’s Word on your heart, so you can know and understand the real truth. He talks about the dangers of living in the information age and how that has hampered our ability to have a child-like faith in a God who is often mysterious.

In his book Wonder Switch, Harris guides readers on a journey through their own journey and narrative and allows them to re-engage with that sense of wonder that allows people to step into a new story of joy. He talks about how trauma can impact our ability to experience wonder and learn new stories.

Excerpts from This Episode

3:31: “By the time I was 21 I made about $1 million doing magic shows and by 22 I was bankrupt. I tell that story because it really is the launching pad for understanding why I do what I do. What I do is magic tricks, in short. But why do I do those magic tricks in the way that I do them? When you have that experience at 21 and then lose it all by 22, it forces you to take a step back and ask yourself questions.”

6:36 – 6:55: “I understand that people are being deceived, I understand how they’re being deceived, but I don’t understand why they’re so passive about it. Why are we so desensitized to the awareness that we are being deceived? I realized it’s because we lost our sense of wonder that gives us the permission to believe in something more and better.”

10:36 – 11:05: “I’ve been studying deception for twenty something years now and I still fall for tricks and lies every now and then. So If I’m not an expert at deception at this point – to protect myself from that and guard myself from that – then what’s your hope? It’s to study the truth, right? We must become experts in the truth.”

18:23 – 19:03 “As long as you hold space for the times you do come into genuine mystery and you gotta learn to strengthen that muscle of being okay with that. Because otherwise it should be no surprise that we have an entire generation of young people who can’t have something like a childlike faith in a divine being as mysterious as God is. I think that sense of child-like wonder is at the heart of faith. I don’t think we can have one without the other. So keep Googling, if you want to, and find those answers. That’s the blessing of living in the information age and having access to it. As long as you don’t get so conditioned to feel uncomfortably with mystery that when your Google results can’t answer the question you don’t get frustrated.

22:42 – 23:04 “When our wonder is crushed we stop believing in the possibility of that new story. So we all are looking for a new story, filled with meaning and purpose and joy and magic and all the things God created us to experience and crav, but unless we believe in it, which we can’t do unless we’re in a state of wonder, we’ll never have permission to step into that new story.”

39:11 – 39:36 – “We are hurt in relationship and we are healed in relationship. Trauma is a full-body experience. It’s not something that happens when you’re sitting in a room thinking. When you experience trauma, that happens in the context of community, which means community is important because that’s how we heal.

Recommended Bible Resource

The Abide Bible is designed to help you experience the peace, hope, and growth that come from encountering the voice and presence of God in Scripture. Every feature in Abide is designed to teach and develop Scripture-engagement habits that help you know the power and spiritual nourishment of abiding in Christ.

Click here to learn more.

The Abide Bible is published by HarperCollins Christian Publishing, Inc., the parent company of Bible Gateway.

Quoted Scripture

“Let not mercy and truth forsake you;

Bind them around your neck,

Write them on the tablet of your heart,

And so find favor and [a]high esteem

In the sight of God and man.”

Proverbs 3:3-4, NKJV

“Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me.”

Matthew 18:2-5, NKJV

“For we walk by faith, not by sight.”

2 Corinthians 5:7, NKJV

“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

2 Corinthians 4:18, NIV