The Beauty of the Mundane

I never thought that the mundane things in life would hold such beauty for me. After all, growing up on a ranch 3 miles from our closest neighbor initiated a desire in me for a different, more exciting life. "If I can just get off this ranch, I will never look back"... and when Green Acres was in my rear view mirror, I truly thought I had arrived.

The older I get, the more I realize what a treasure that mundane home on the hill truly was. Life and the people who live it seem to get more complicated, more dysfunctional with which I can or actually have any desire to keep up. I see it and hear it everyday in ministry, and it is beyond heartbreaking to me: It is disgusting, distasteful and ignoble. If we as a society continue with this delusion that technology and "things" can actually bring us the abundant life that Jesus told us was His desire for us, I fear that one day I will wake up and be a stranger on my own street.

Lord, please renew my memories of the better times on the hill. Maybe running around in shorts, with no shoes and no t-shirts, and playing battle with sticks was more beautiful than I ever realized. Forgive me for not treasuring the beauty of the mundane.