The Theft of Wonder: Why the Modern World Feels So Heavy - Orthodoxy 4G

Why does modern life feel so exhausting—even when it’s efficient, explained, and optimized?

In this Weekly Jumpstart, Pastor John L. Widdifield walks through G.K. Chesterton’s Orthodoxy, Chapter IV — “The Ethics of Elfland” — to uncover what has quietly been stolen from modern people: wonder.

Chesterton shows us that the world is not heavy because it is hard, but because it has been stripped of enchantment. We were taught explanations before experiences, mechanisms before meaning, and systems before joy. The result is a culture that is technically informed yet spiritually starved.

This episode explores:

Why fairy tales tell the truth modern systems cannot

How scientific determinism flattens joy into machinery

Why repetition is stranger than randomness

How the reordering of The Chronicles of Narnia mirrors the reordering of our lives

Why obedience, gratitude, and joy only make sense once you admit the world did not have to exist at all

This is not nostalgia.
It is rescue.

We close by recovering the proper order of reality: wonder first, explanation second—and finally, worship.

Christ is King.
Hail to the King.