Day 4: Learning to Pay Attention

Text: Exodus 3:1-6

We long to experience God in some spectacular way – to find Him in the most extraordinary way. We tend to equate encounters with God with something that leaves us awestruck like flashes of brilliance. And when they occur, they leave us speechless. The vividness of beauty, the genius of thought, the flowing, graceful movements allows us to be transported somewhere transcendent. We are lifted to a place we have not been before, or rarely ever reach. And so we treasure these special times. We like to remember them, for in the end, memories are all we have, and to stretch, to go back to that moment of great beauty, pleasure, and grace allows us to celebrate once more that fleeting slice of transcendence.

But life is not a series of brilliance. More often, they are common – mundane – ordinary. We have our routines. We have our rhythms. And we think that the muted colors of the ordinary do not cause us to celebrate. But to hear its subtle rhythms can bring magic too. Even the ordinary can bring joy, understated though it may be. Laughter, work, commuting, doing your grocery – simple, regular activities – these too can be avenues for the mystical, for the transcendent. These can be occasions for a deeper understanding of self, or our soul, of He who is above ordinary.

In fact, when you really think about it, a burning bush is nothing spectacular. An ordinary fire may have caused the dried up plant to be consumed. In the rural world of sheep, and ragged landscape, a burning bush is nothing to speculate about. I'm sure it was not the first time, or the only time a bush burned. Nothing above the ordinary.

But Moses looked.

He noticed something beyond the routine. The fire did not consume the bush. Had he not taken time to look, he would have missed that which is spectacularly amazing. He paid attention and noticed that something or Someone was being revealed. Moses saw beyond the routine and was able to encounter God. He was aware that in the midst of his routine, God is breaking through. And suddenly, the mundane has taken on a deep significance. Moses was transported beyond the ordinariness of his world, and is now standing on holy ground. The dusty, rocky places now glows with the presence of God.

Let us learn to be fluent in the subdued language and whisperings of our ordinary life. There may be aspects of our lives we often take for granted: our family, our friends, our work, the very world we belong in. When we neglect them, we may miss the opportunity to see the most beautiful of all. Our routines – our lives – they maybe ordinary, but they too are sacred - for at the very heart of it, at its core, when all is stripped and all is laid bare, we can find the most brilliant of all: Him

"Listen to your life. see it for the fathomless mystery that it is. in the boredom and pain of it, no less than in the excitement and gladness. taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it because in the last analysis, all moments are key moments and life itself is grace." Frederich Buechner