The Blessing That Was Right in Front of You the Whole Time

In August of 1999, Joanna Watson was on holiday in the

United States when the car she was in went off the edge of a

mountain road in complete darkness. It dropped about 160

feet before coming to a stop. The car flipped over on its roof,

and she was hanging upside down, held by her seat belt, and she

couldn't move. She had fractured her spine in two places. She was

alone on a mountain road she didn't know in a country that

wasn't hers in the middle of the night, and the strangers started

showing up. One came, then another. A doctor arrived. A

fellow Christian arrived. Each person appeared in the order she

needed them, bringing exactly what she needed in that moment.

She hadn't called anyone, and she hadn't arranged anything.

They were just there. We'll come back to what she made of all

that. But first...

Welcome to Daily Devotions for Busy Lives. I'm Bart Leger. I'm

almost always up before sunrise. But yesterday, and it was

yesterday as I'm recording this devotion, I did something I

rarely take time to do. I stepped out onto our front and

just stood there. What I saw was an explosion of color across the

sky. The kind of sunrise that looks like God was just showing

off, and it lasted just a few minutes before it faded. And I

almost missed it like I have countless mornings before

because I was already moving toward the next thing. I stood

there thinking, how many of these have I just walked past?

That is what today's episode's about. We spend a lot of time

asking God to show up, and then we miss him when he does because

he shows up in a way we didn't expect. We're waiting for the

burning bush, the unmistakable sign. And while we're he arrives

in a conversation that came exactly at the right time, or in

a peace that settles over us when nothing in our

circumstances has changed. Here's the blessing that

Scripture's been speaking over God's people for thousands of

years. Numbers 6, 24-26. May the Lord bless you and protect you.

May the Lord smile on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord

show you his favor and give you his peace. That's the Aaronic

blessing, and it's been spoken over God's people since Moses.

Notice what it's asking for. Protection and grace, favor and

peace. These aren't dramatic interventions. Most of the time,

they arrive without fanfare. a sense that you're being watched

over, or a peace that doesn't depend on your circumstances

making sense. Those things are already in motion in your life.

The question is whether you're paying attention. Psalm 34, 8

says, Taste and see that the Lord is good. That's an

invitation to notice, to slow down enough, to actually receive

what's already in front of you. Tasting requires being present.

You can't taste something you've rushed past. Here's where I

think a lot of us get into trouble. We develop a theology

of God's presence that requires the ordinary. We tend to have a

belief that he moves in revival services and answers prayers for

healing, and those moments do happen. But if that's the only

thing we're watching for, I believe we often miss most of

what he's doing. The ordinary is where most of life happens, and

it's where God is most consistently present, if we're

looking for him there. A friend calls out of nowhere on a day

you needed to hear their voice. A passage you've read a hundred

times before suddenly means something significant for you

that day. None of these things are dramatic, but all of them

are God. The practice of noticing, I believe, is a

spiritual discipline. It doesn't come naturally to most of us,

especially when we're wired for productivity or for moving as

quickly as we can through the day. But I believe it's worth

developing because it how you move through every ordinary day.

When you begin looking for God in the ordinary, guess what? You

find him there, and finding him there makes the ordinary feel

sacred. Now, let's get back to Joanna. Joanna survived, and she

walked In the years afterwards, she couldn't stop thinking about

those strangers on the road. She didn't call what happened a

coincidence. She called it a God incidence. Her word for

provision that looks random until you look more carefully at

it. She later gathered more stories like hers. Ordinary

people who found God's hand in moments they almost missed, and

she wrote them down. What she kept coming back to was this.

God's hand is at work in our lives far more than we tend to

notice. That's what she wanted people to know. God was there

all along, even on a mountain road at midnight, Even when

nobody was looking for him, he was present in the ordinary

moments, the ones nobody marked on a calendar. He's there in

your ordinary moments also. In the sunrise, you almost walked

past, and in the conversation that came at exactly the right

moment. He's already present. We just have to stop long enough to

notice. Here's today's challenge. Before the end of today, stop

once and look for God in something ordinary. It doesn't

have to be a sunrise. It might be a small thing that went right

when it easily could have gone wrong, or a moment of quiet you

didn't expect. Go ahead and name it, and thank God for it out

loud, or do it in writing.

forgive us for rushing past what you've placed right in front of

us. Open our eyes to your presence in the ordinary moments

of our days, and Teach us to taste and see that you are good

in the moments that shake us, and in the ordinary ones, too.

May we receive the blessing you've already been giving. In

Jesus' name, amen. If this episode encouraged you today,

would you share it with someone who might need it? Just go to

dailydevotionsforbusylives.com slash 223 and copy the link. It

only takes a second. And thanks for joining me on Daily

Devotions for Busy Lives. Remember, God is already We just

have to stop long enough to notice. Come back next time for

more encouragement to help you live grounded in God's truth.

Until then, God bless, and have a great day.