“If you resist the monotonous, you’ll miss the miraculous.” -Steven Furtick
Monotonous: lacking in variety; tedious
When people hear me say I’m on a year long mission trip traveling the world, sharing Jesus and meeting people, they probably have some spectacular images of what they think I’m doing. They may picture a drug addict getting saved on a street corner, a lame person getting out of their wheelchair healed, or handing out food and loving on every homeless person in town. Now I’m not saying none of that will happen, but the reality is that most of my days might actually look pretty boring and uneventful to you. But I’ve learned that God often shows up and works in the everyday ordinary, and how amazing that can be.
For example, here’s what a typical day could look like for my team and I.
7:30am- I wake up, eat breakfast and have some alone time with the Lord.
9:00am- We gather around the table for our daily Bible study.
10:00am- We take a few minutes to pray and ask the Lord what He has in store for us for the day.
(A couple of people feel led to go to a coffee shop, others need to go do laundry or go to the grocery store, and someone else feels the desire to go sit in the park.)
11:00am- We eat lunch, split up into groups and go for the day.
5:00pm- We gather back together at the house.
6:00pm- We eat dinner and share what happened during the day.
7:00pm- We have team time and play games or just have fun with each other.
9:00pm- Everyone goes their own way for the night until we meet back up for bible study the next morning.
Sounds exciting right? It may not look like we’re doing much. We’re just living life in another country. But let me tell you about something beautiful that has come out of that.
One day we had to get SIM cards for the team phones and the store happened to be right by a small street vendor stand. The lady told us hi as we walked by and I suddenly had the urge to buy something from her. I spotted a little chest filled with ice cream and decided to ask her which one was her favorite. She smiled, a little confused as to why I would ask for her favorite, but she obliged and actually searched out to find the perfect one in hopes I would like it. We sat down and talked for another five minutes while my teammates finished getting SIM cards at the store. She was so friendly to me and was curious why I was there and what I was doing. At the end of the week I stopped by her stand again to give her flowers and tell her bye before we left. She couldn’t believe I had flowers for her, no one had ever given her flowers. She couldn’t stop smiling and telling us how beautiful we were and how much she liked the flowers. She even told us how most people think she’s mean and how she doesn’t really care for people, but for some reason she liked talking and being with us. We said our farewells and gave several hugs before finally leaving. I’ll probably never see her again, but I will never forget her smile and the look in her eyes when she realized, if only for a moment, that she was noticed and loved by a few “gringas” from the United States.
Our day to day activities may not look very exciting or spectacular from the outside, but to God they’re important. I could go out everyday and search for the “most broken” person I see in hopes that God will show up and do something crazy through me. But the truth is, if I did that, I’d miss the miraculous things God has in store for me in the everyday ordinary.
“If you resist the monotonous, you’ll miss the miraculous.”
Don’t skip over the monotonous things of life, like running errands and buying ice cream, searching for what you think might be miraculous. You might be surprised at how truly miraculous everyday life can be.
*P.S. I’m also still fundraising and I’m about $1,200 short of my March deadline and $6,000 short of being fully funded. If you feel led to donate, any support big or small would be greatly appreciate. As always I am so thankful for your prayers. Please reach out and let me know if you have any questions or if there’s anything I can be praying about for you! Love you guys!
