This morning, as I sat on the patio enjoying the cool air and my first caffeine, I heard the distant whistle of a train. From where I sat, it was almost poetic. The rhythmic rumble was a perfect soundtrack to a cool and peaceful morning.
Then my mind went in a different direction. I’ve rarely (truthfully, never) had the same reaction sitting in my car waiting for a train to pass. The same sound that seems so pleasant from my backyard is considerably less charming when I’m glancing at my watch, wondering how much longer it will take for the train to pass so that I can get where I’m going. And that led me to today’s pondering.
Do you find, in life, that the abstract is better than the reality? Or at least that it often feels that way?
It’s easy to romanticize things from a distance. We love the idea of a perfect Hallmark family … but are often faced with the truth that relationships are difficult. We commit to the idea of following Christ … but the reality is that faith in action can be costly. We speak of patience … until we’re forced to practice it. We look at others and want the life they seem to have, not realizing that they’re looking at others, perhaps even us, and wishing the same.
The abstract often seems not only better but easier than the reality.
Yet the Christian faith has never been merely an abstract idea. The gospel is gloriously concrete. “The Word became flesh and lived among us” (John 1:14). Jesus didn’t save us from a comfortable distance. He entered our world with all its interruptions, delays, disappointments, and sorrows. He became real in both life and death.
Perhaps that’s why God’s grace and our faith aren’t found in some idealized version of life, but in the life we’re actually living. God doesn’t just say that he will be with us some future day, after we have struggled and made it through this life. God promises to be with us in this life as well. In the waiting. The interruptions. The inconveniences. All of our ordinary moments, messy and otherwise, are the very places where Christ meets us.
Maybe the goal isn’t to live in the abstract at all, but to discover that God’s presence is every bit as real as life’s interruptions.
Prayer: Lord, keep me from loving the idea of following you more than the daily practice of following you. Meet me not only in life’s beautiful moments but also in its delays, frustrations, and ordinary routines. Help me find your grace in my reality, where you have promised to be. Amen.
