I spend a good chunk of time on public transit in Sing. That is the understatement of the year- I spend A LOT of time on public transit. I've tried so many different tactics to make being crammed between people in what I think is consistently the strangest smelling combination of things (at least no Durian smell, of course) just a little more enjoyable. But the other day, when I left my book at home and my phone was flat, I thought a lot about the route I take everyday on the SMRT (Singapore Mass Rapid Transit) and how its story is so similar to my experience with faith and my relationship with the gospel of Jesus.
First, my mentality so much of the time with the MRT is to "fight the good fight"...for a seat. I mean, sitting during my commute is of utmost importance for the outlook of my day and I WILL do whatever it takes (elbows out, mean mugging, etc). Me, me, me, I want a seat. In Singapore, it is expected that you give up your seat for pregnant women (#peoplegetcreative), older people, and kids but when I had my arms full of groceries and someone got up and gave me his seat, I realized it's not necessarily all about "fighting the fight" but learning to LOVE like Jesus-to put someone's needs before your wants. "Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle." (Plato)Then, I thought about this: you know how you can get in the mindset of being unhappy about whatever that "big bad thing" (BBT) is in life at that season and you are convinced it will always be that way, because you can't imagine life without the constant nagging of that BBT (maybe your financial situation, your relationship status, your kids' baddittudes, my constant frizzy hair in Sing or my long commute...insert nagging BBT here). And how often I let the BBT put me in a funk. But aren't we always taken aback when inevitably something unpredicted does happen to change our relationship our BBT (like looking to my left one morning to a man in his 80s shaving his beard on SMRT next to me). haha No, maybe a better example: One morning I sleepily pushed my way onto the subway #morningsarenotmyfav and 2 stops later, the guy beside me had an impromptu Gangnam Style singalong/performance that everyone got into. Ordinary thing (commute) turned extraordinary...and totally unpredicted when I started my everyday common commute. So then I thought, why don't I expect interesting changes in life from an interesting Jesus? Like Robert C. Gallagher put it, "Change is inevitable – except from a vending machine" and of all the interesting things I have observed/been party to on the SMRT, even on the SAME seemingly "predictable" commute, there is a brilliant joy in the unexpected changes we spend so much time convincing ourselves will never happen.
Being PRESENT. I have overslept my stop, gone in the wrong direction on the train line, and gotten off at the wrong stop so many times (shamefully unashamed). When I'm not present or paying attention, I miss what was intended for me and it takes a lot of work to get back to where I was going. I used to get upset when I'd mess up the route, I'd run up above ground and quickly flag a taxi, mostly because of stubbornness and just pure surrender, TKO. However, I think about how now, I correct myself, get back on track and make it there-sometimes the consequence is loss of time or loss of a seat (and we know how devastating that is for me), but the point is, I'm still able to get there. When I miss my chance on occasions in life or make mistakes of decisions, God's grace isn't always like the taxi that will easily chauffeur us to our destination but his grace is also sufficient for us to get back to the destination intended for us or to show us a new bus line or different train to make it there a different way from where we are. When we make mistakes, it doesn't ruin our chances of making it to the joy God planned for us in the first place-it just may look a little different, you might be a little more weathered, and the alternate route can be a little rough going. But I've seen A LOT of the city through being lost and have made discoveries I would have never seen otherwise. Same same in life.
So today might be extraordinary, but even if it's not, let us be motivated by love, expectant in adventure, and present in His grace.
I'm SINGing: "Beautiful Things" -Gungor AND "Something Beautiful" -Needtobreathe
