Today I got sort of angry about something. I got angry that someone on my Facebook newsfeed posted and applauded an article called “The 5 Most Annoying Facebook Posts About Being Engaged.” The link lead to a buzzfeed article written by a woman who has decided that it’s her place to tell other women how to announce their engagements on the internet. This article didn’t personally offend me, as I’ve never been engaged, so I have never needed to announce my engagement on Facebook. But it did make me sort of angry about where humans place passion and energy. Why are we SO passionate about pointing out the ways that people annoy us? How strange that we find it appropriate to tell others how to display their lives in a way that will match our own personal preferences. And then I saw another article posted about how Kate Middleton goes “shopping in her own closet.” Really? Why are we passionate about the fact that Kate Middleton re-wears her clothes? Do we really care?
Or are we just looking for something to talk about?
I think so. I think we’re just looking for some sort of connection with other people. But when life is ordinary and dull and mundane, what sort of things are we supposed to connect over? If that connection has to be made through shared passion about the same negativity and judgment, then so be it.
But might I suggest we go out of our way to connect over something else? Like loving the people around us? Or sharing enthusiasm over something outside of ourselves that matters?
Then, today I cried about something. I cried because lately I’ve been struck by the small ways that miracles are happening all around us everyday. Miracles in the mundane. Miracles that would generally go unnoticed. A new and unlikely friendship? To me, that’s a miracle. Someone going out of his way for a stranger? Another miracle. Lives transformed by one small step after another? Miracle.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve totally jumped on the negativity train before too. It’s easy to do, I get it. It’s easy to point out the flaws I see in others when I don’t actually know the story because that makes things simpler. And then, I don’t have to know the story. Easy, right? Or it’s easy to give up when things haven’t turned out the way I had hoped. It’s easy to point fingers when I’m not getting what I want. Even on the World Race, it’s easy to look back on the year and see all of the ways that my expectations weren’t met and all of the areas that I didn’t quite get what I’d hoped for. The inadequacies of life around me are easy to pick out from any direction.
But actually, I don’t want what’s easy. I want what loves and honors the people around me whether or not I know them and their story. In that, I honor myself and the story God has placed me in. I want my life and thoughts and the things I create to be the things that are genuine and noble and honest and gracious and beautiful; things that point to a reality and a God bigger than myself.
So today, as I reflected on the things I’ve seen and experienced this year, I took time to write down where I’ve seen miracles in the mundane. Where love and light and Jesus have shown up in the most unlikely and ordinary places. And I cried tears of joy as I realized that these things are happening every single day around me. It’s my choice to acknowledge them. It’s my choice to be passionate and enthusiastic about these things. It’s my choice to connect with and encourage others in these things.
And then I watched this video and cried some more. Because I mean, really, how great is this story and how adorable is the man that shares it?
The Ox from Ben Proudfoot on Vimeo.
Miracles in the mundane; they’re around us every day. Will you look for them?
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