Transformed through the Mundane

          I am currently less than one hundred days away from embarking on the world race this summer! I am honestly unable to put into words how excited I am for this trip. I don’t believe there have been many other times where I have been this excited for something before. I am finding myself wanting to jump on a plane and leave immediately! Perhaps a large part of the excitement comes from the idea that I will be leaving the life of perpetual homework, tests, meetings, and more homework which seem to sufficiently define my life at this moment. I was recently spending some time in prayer over this trip and for the nations of Thailand and Cambodia when again the excitement inside my heart began to build into something that almost felt uncontrollable. However, in that moment I felt the Lord’s reminder not to neglect the 90+ days I have prior to leaving for the trip. In my excitement for what lies ahead, I felt a warning to not miss the Lord in the present days of my life. The very days I was wanting to escape from, were days that the Lord had ordered before me to walk in communion with him through. Who am I to wish an escape from any moment; however hard, perpetual, or mundane, that the Lord would lovingly spend with me? When I look back on my life, He reminds me that it is in those seemingly ordinary days that I have experienced the most radical transformation. 

          Just this last week, I was having a conversation with a friend about what the Lord had done in my life in the past and how much I had come to love to spend time with him. I told him honestly that there is nothing more important to me than my relationship with the Lord. And that relationship was strengthened and built-up in the mundane moments. It was developed in the perpetual mornings that I spent in His word. It was and is in the quiet times I spend alone in his presence that I fell in love with the man Jesus. There has been nothing more transformational in my life, than the quiet times I have spent with the Lord. I whole-heartedly believe that the pathway to righteousness is found in intimacy with the Father. For the presence of the Lord is the only place that sin cannot dwell. So, I make an effort to seek his presence in every moment. If I had to trade every other moment of “excitement” for the times I have spent alone in prayer, worship, or reading of the Word, I believe that I would. I thank the Lord for the “exciting” moments and the joyful gift they have been to me, but they are not what I live off of. What I live off of and what gets me through the day, are the moments in the early morning that I spend pursuing his heart. I have come to look forward to and love these moments, and I know that the Lord loves them too. So, I can look with excitement for my trip this summer, but I can also look with excitement on the three months that lie ahead because I know that not a single moment spent with the Lord is wasted. 

          Psalm 91:1-2 says, “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.” One of the foundational components of those quiet times with the Lord and my relationship with him has been the Word of God (the law). I have personally witnessed and experience so much fruit come into my life through the reading and studying of the Bible. The closer I have grown with the Lord, the more and more I have found that I delight in the Word of God. No, it is not always my greatest desire to spend time in the Word every moment of every day, but I don’t just read the Word because I want to. If I desire to be a devoted, follower of Christ, the Word is something that I NEED. It is absolutely vital in my walk with the Lord and my relationship with him. I honestly, don’t know what my life would look like today if I didn’t have the Word of God present in my life. I have been to countries where people don’t have access to the Word of God and tear pages apart to share them with each other. With five Bibles of my own sitting on the shelf, I have prayed for this same hunger for the Word and watched as God slowly created in me a heart that has begun to delight in the law of the Lord. Why is it that we have to be convinced or talked into studying the Word or spending time with the Lord? Why is this not the greatest desire of all of our hearts? Today, I pray that the Lord would create in my heart an excitement for the reading of the Word and the mundane moments spent with him, which would be able to rival the excitement I have for my trip this summer. Yes, I can barely control the excitement I have for the World Race, but I am also excited for what He showed me yesterday, what He will speak to me today, and what He will do in my life tomorrow.