The God Who Lives in the Fragrant Muck

One of the most frustrating things we experience is to be looking for something that we cannot find.Our keys.Our phone.Our minds, some days.And then, in our darker moments, perhaps, we wake up looking for God. And that can be tiring work, because for so many of us, it feels like we're not quite up for that kind of journey. It could wind through the treacherous parts of ourselves that we don't want to see, can't see, or worse, do see, and from which we recoil.The problem is that we're looking for a God who doesn't want to see, can't see, or worse, does see, and recoils.Stop looking for that kind of god.Frederick Buechner writes about where we can find God, even if we're not looking:"God is right here in the thick of our day-by-day lives... trying to get messages through our blindness as we move around down here knee-deep in the fragrant muck and misery and marvel of the world." (The Magnificent Defeat)Like the ketchup bottle that is right in front of you in the fridge, though you cannot see it, God isrighthere.In the messy stacks of procrastination that clutter your desk and your life.In the squeals of delight from your toddlers when you come home.In the flat tires, in the flooded basement, in the stubbed toe.In the bright sunshine that finally overcomes our winter weariness.God - the God that is real - is available, and near, and impossibly close.Right.Here.In the fragrant muck and misery and marvel of my actual life.Photo Credit