Delighting in the Mundane

The theme for Reconciled World in 2018 is Delighting in the Lord. One blessing of my position as Global Staff Pastor is being able to hear the different voices and perspectives that you all bring to this theme. I am excited to share one of those with you today. Thanks to Jewel Anita Hendrix for sharing her thoughts on what delighting in the Lord means to her.

Lady Bird Johnson, a former-First Lady of the United States, has a quote that says this: “Where flowers bloom, so does hope.”

Have you ever taken a moment to observe and reflect on the beauty and design of a tree blossom? They are actually pretty amazing. As I look out my window right now I see these delicate flowers springing out among the leaves from a tree in my garden. Once a year these flowers come to life, bringing beauty and splendor to a simple tree. Their aroma fills the air, and their exquisite design is mesmerizing.

When I look at these flowers, I am reminded of God, His character, beauty, and nature. I am reminded that He cares about the smallest and grandest things and that in everything, even the mundane, we can see His glory. These blossoms remind me of God’s faithfulness and grace. As Lady Bird Johnson says, they give me hope; a hope that comes through delighting in who God is.

What delighting in the Lord means to me

When I think about delighting in the Lord, I think about seeing the blossoms on a tree, the sound of the rain hitting the roof, or the anticipation as I watch the lemons grow each day. When I think about delighting in the Lord, I think about seeing God in the mundane, the everyday, and finding His glory through it; seeing His character revealed in it. For me, it’s finding beauty in nature, but for others it might be seeing God in the massive buildings of a city—always being amazed at the amount of creativity and ingenuity God instilled in our human minds to build these huge structures. Or those moments reflecting in traffic jams, being reminded of the God who made all of these people with purpose; purpose that takes us from place to place working, creating, conversing, and constructing.

Choosing to see beauty rather than brokenness

Our world is full of the ugly—pain, betrayal, suffering, evil. And often the ugly weighs us down.

There was a season in my life when I felt surrounded by the ugly. My regular ministry took me from one type of pain to another, broken situation to broken situation, ugliness to ugliness. Over time I became weighed down by the burden of so much evil. Children being trafficked, people dying of treatable diseases, lives broken by greed and oppression, families torn apart by addiction, people in severe poverty and hunger. It was depressing and disheartening. I was surrounded by the negative and was struggling to see the beauty of God anywhere. I was overwhelmed, burdened in my soul, and losing hope.

I’d bring these disturbing thoughts and feelings to the Lord. Even though I knew He had the victory, and had overcome all of this ugliness, how could I find hope as I faced it each day? One day, I heard the Lord say to me, “You’ve lost My Beauty; you need to find it again.”

I had no idea how to do that. Then a friend introduced me to an online jigsaw puzzle app. In this app, I found pictures of incredible sunsets, mountains and glaciers, oceans roaring, and spacious galaxies. I began to meditate on the character of God as I was putting together the jigsaw puzzles, seeing His power and gentleness, His splendor and tenderness. This was the turning point. Before long I began seeing the same beauty in creation around me. My perspective began to change and my hopelessness turned to hope.

Seeing God in the mundane things of life became my way of handing over the reality of evil to the sovereign God who can handle it. I find myself being released from the “burden” to fix it and trusting that God will take care of it in His time and sovereignty. How? I don’t know. When? I don’t know. But what I can be assured of is that He is in control. God has won the battle.

The discipline of delight

Jesus says in Matthew 11:28-30, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”

The more I delight in the beauty of His character, the more I feel lightened and refreshed. I give the burdens to Him, because delighting in God’s character allows me to trust Him and rest.

I use the word “discipline” because for me it started with intentionality. I realized that I needed to actively seek things that helped me delight in the Lord and see beauty again, like with a muscle which needed exercising. I needed to purposely pursue and choose to see the character of God in my surroundings. I couldn’t let the moments of delight be taken over by the brokenness.

Delighting in the Lord through the mundane gives me greater joy and hope. As I see God’s character in my surroundings, I am lightened of my burdens and filled with the joy that only God brings. Nothing is actually mundane. Everything can reveal a glimpse of the Creator, a fragment of hope to delight in.

Where flowers bloom so does hope. May we each find delight and hope in the Lord as we delight in His character and faithfulness revealed through our everyday surroundings.

Photo by Dimitri Tyan on Unsplash