Extraordinary events happen in the most ordinary of places. And just underneath the dullness and frustration of daily life, something amazing is often in the works.

The first interaction I ever had with Laurie was at tiny bus station. You might not even call it a bus STATION it was so small, just a place where a bald-headed, middle-aged man sold tickets behind a table. I was in China, traveling with my mom, and we were trying to get to Wuhan.

I remember being really angry because the hotel in Wuhan was giving me trouble, and on top of that we couldn’t get the bus tickets we needed. My stress level must’ve been about an eleven out of ten at that moment, so my mom decided to pray.

Now, you should never scoff at the prayer of a mother. You may think it’s corny, but I’ve seen moms pray for their sons and the inexplicable happened shortly afterwards. What happened next may be included as evidence further validating mom prayers.

I received a phone call moments later and it was Laurie on the line. It was our first time ever speaking and I remember we were laughing ten seconds into the phone call. Isn’t that something? Laughing freely with someone else, that’s not nothing, that’s uncommon.

When the phone call ended I went back to being pissed at the bus and the hotel. I continued being stressed for the remainder of the day. But looking back now, I couldn’t even tell you the name of the hotel or what happened afterwards. All I remember was that phone call.

These tiny moments matter. Sometimes seismic events are happening all around you and yet you’re not even aware.

Maybe we can’t see the amazing poking through the ordinary because we’ve been so trained to expect fireworks, music, noise and fanfare. Hype seems to demarcate the arrival of a noteworthy moment. But in our culture, hype can deceive us. It often is a cheap substitute for something interesting or remarkable.

I recently listened to a podcast where two famous sports analysts were discussing previous Superbowls (the Superbowl is perhaps the height of hype). The first guy was asking the second guy trivia questions about the games, but the second guy was having trouble remembering the details only a year or two later. This was even more ironic, because he had been the one calling the games in the booth! If he can’t remember key details just a few years later, how special was the event really?

It’s amazing how something can seem like such a big deal at the time and yet quickly become inconsequential. Meanwhile, we run the risk of our attention being so focused on these small, unimportant matters that we miss the big things happening right in front of us.

Perhaps it’s distressing or depressing to know that many of today’s problems won’t matter at all by this time next week. “Major” issues will be forgotten. They won’t just roll off your back, they’ll roll straight out of your mind.

An example of this is cleaning out your email inbox or at least giving it a short glance. There you will find previous deadlines and projects that at the time seemed so important and stressful. Years removed, they now seem like harmless old ghosts. What was so scary? What was so painful? Turns out much of it didn’t matter at all.

The proverbial email inboxes, Wuhan hotels and Superbowls are inevitable -you’ve got to wake up and take part in the daily (and routine) rhythms of life. But don’t let them drag you down, rather, take time to notice what is important today. You may find that the world around you transforms – the bald man selling bus tickets is an angel, the small prayer of a mom is a powerful incantation, and a merely pleasant phone call is the opening lines of a long and wonderful love story. If you can spot the miraculous in the mundane, then you will begin to see reality for what it truly is: a space inhabited by God’s fullness.

Laurie on the Line