Just Boring Old Life

Life is…life.

Sometimes we as humans expect life to be jammed packed with these incredible, pulse-pounding moments, worthy of stories that can be told generations from now and still be funny, entertaining or inspiring.  Truth is your pulse is pounding all the time and thus every moment of your life is worth a story.  It just depends how you choose to look at it.

In the beginning of Mark 9, we see one of those “epic” life moments.  Jesus took Peter, James, and John up with him to the high mountain and he, get this, reveals himself to him.  Now we now that Jesus is God but for the last 33 years he has been residing in the very boring and dull form of a homosapien (If you think about, humans have to one of the blandest, least visually stimulating beasts in all of creation) but here in verse 2 and 3, he transfigures.  “…His garments became radiant and exceedingly white”.  The dude was shining like the sun that He helped create, and the Three Stooges are standing there in person to witness it.  And it gets better.  Vs. 4 says that Elijah and Moses appear before them and start chatting with Jesus.  These are probably the two most influential men in Israel’s history and they appear (probably also shining some) next to brilliant Son already radiating in glory.  Now skip ahead to vs. 7, “Then a cloud formed, overshadowing them, and a voice came out of the cloud, ‘This is My beloved Son, listen to Him!’” God!  God himself showed up!  These three mere men were privy to probably one of the most indescribably fantastic awe-inspiring moments in the history of ever.  Elijah, Moses, radiating Jesus, and speaking God…this is epic and awesome and note worthy and every other poorly understated human description of the situation.  This is definitely one of those moments that you tell people later on.

But what do these disciples do in the moment with all this glory being unveiled before them?  They ask to build Jesus, Elijah, and Moses tents.  Peter says, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here.”  No duh.  But even if we look beyond this moment of wisdom and basic brain operation, after all seeing dead people and a glowing man and a talking cloud can be pretty overwhelming, we need to see how they handled themselves later on.  In vs 31, Jesus tells them that He will be killed and then raise three days later.  Cool.  The disciple’s reaction: “But they did not understand this statement, and they were afraid to ask Him”.  Not all were there for the transfiguration but even the three that were did not get the point.  They SAW the Son of God and they missed the point.  I mean Peter later denies that He even knows Jesus.  He saw Jesus light up like a light bulb, talk to (the long since dead) Elijah and Moses, and be engulfed by the presence of God (beyond all the other miracles that he saw) and yet he still did not get.  These men had probably one of the greatest dinner party stories to tell ever, and they squandered it.

We in life get so caught up in that next great moment or story.  We want that next spiritual surge of guiding a friend to Christ or feeling some godly buzz at a worship service.  We are hooked on the big time.  Well Peter, James, and John got the big time and it did not seem to affect them much.  

Here is a secret...everyday of your life is the big time.  It may not be spectacular or adrenaline inducing but you are living with the presence of God inside of you and all around you every moment.  You get to walk out that door and go to work and radiate like the sun because the Son is in you.  I have had conversations with my family about where we are in a walks with Christ and several times the words “Nothing too crazy is going on” or “I am just living life” are used.  First, God (you know the dude that created the ENTIRE UNIVERSE…that dude) lives inside you.  Second, life is God.  In Genesis, He breathed life into us, us the ones He made in His own image.  Those salvation stories are great and the spiritual highs are stimulating but so is life.

Enjoy life because life is the breath of God, and He lives in you.  That is about as epic as it gets.  It would be incredible to see what those three disciples saw but we are already seeing pretty cool things…just open your eyes.  Realize the intricacies of your body and Creation as a whole.  Realize the magnitude of the calling to save the lost sheep.  Realize how epic your life is.

So may your life be…life.