I Spy With My Little Eye Something Incredible: Reflections on Israel and Mundanity

 Hard to believe it's been exactly four years since I visited Israel!  This week has been full of reminiscence.  

Each location held so much meaning and symbolism, so many stories and remnants of a history and culture I'd only read about before. 

The trip was a rush from sight to sight at breakneck speed, yet simultaneously filled with time to reflect, remember, and appreciate.

At each location, I was surrounded by so many others from all different backgrounds, religions, and cultures. I felt the overwhelming richness of stories and experiences in both the locations we visited and the many others also visiting.  And yet we also felt a sort of camaraderie.  We'd all traveled significant distances to this specific location because it meant something so dear to us, words wouldn't accurately explain it.

Four years later, I find myself in a much more "typical" setting, but I've been struck by the similarities.

Anyone who knows me knows I somehow thrive in my insane schedule, running from gig to gig.  While I love the variety in what I do, sometimes I wish I had more time to really relish and more fully appreciate the richness and beauty of each place I go, endeavor I tackle, and person with whom I get to interact.

But maybe the problem isn't that I don't have the time.  After all, my day has plenty of commute in it, providing me time to reflect and think.  And there are moments of waiting all throughout each day.  So why does the meaning of each place seem so easily lost on me?  Even in the chaos and business of Israel, I was able to appreciate - at least to an extent - the overwhelming meaning and special-ness of where I was and who I was with.  Why is home different?

We see similar results from undergoing an unusual experience: forging atypically fast, deep friendships with those who have gone through the same dangerous or intense situation; seeing the miracles in life after a near-death or similarly threatening situation.  The things that fall outside our chronic reality - the life we live day in, day out - change and open our perspective.  The longer or more often something happens, the more we overlook it, cease to really reflect on it.

But my chronic reality, my mundane everyday is filled with incredible things.  While in Israel I saw places Jesus had walked Himself, there is nowhere I look today that God the Holy Spirit is not actively and completely present and working.  In Israel, I saw where Jesus walked; every day, I see individuals walking around within whom Christ lives.  The stories all around me are just as rich, the people just as beloved and impacted by their unique backgrounds.

Don't get me wrong.  Israel is such an incredibly special place, and my time there was a once-in-a-lifetime experience I'll forever treasure and never forget.  But as I've been reflecting on it, I realized that I don't want to miss out on recognizing and appreciating the miracles and the eternal within my every day.  In the middle of rushing from thing to thing, I want to take the time to reflect and enjoy where God has me today, where He's working right here, right now, right in front of me.

I hope you'll join me in looking for, noticing, and admiring the many, many hints of eternity God's placed everywhere in your day-to-day, because there are so, so many things to see!