Have you ever felt that life is just so mundane?

You have a routine that has become a rut. Day, after day, week after week is, well, predictable.

I think we all go through stages like that. Maybe more of us have been recently, with lockdowns, working from home, and outside activities become more difficult and so less common.

If I am honest, I have felt in a bit of a rut recently which is why I found reading Exodus 3 so interesting. It’s the story of how Moses encountered God in the Burning Bush.

Before we dive into that story, let’s back up a bit in Moses’ story for a bit of context. Moses was found as a baby by an Egyptian Princess, brought up as royalty in the greatest civilisation in the world and trained for a position of power and prestige. But in a fit of rage, he murdered an Egyptian overseer who had been attacking a Jewish slave. To cut a long story short, he had to flee and went from living in the most opulent palaces that existed to living in a tent in a bleak desert. He went from having a royal title and powerful job where probably thousands of men obeyed his every command, to looking after a small herd of smelly sheep for his father in law.

Every day, Moses took his father in laws sheep out to find water and pasture. Everyday, he sat and watched they weren’t attacked by predators or stolen by thieves.

Every day, every week, every month for forty years.

I am thinking Moses’ life was in a rut.

But then in what started out to be an ordinary day, something extraordinary happened. Moses saw a bush on fire, not that unusual, but then he noticed that despite being on fire it wasn’t being burnt to cinder and he went to find out more.

There on that ordinary day, in the middle of his mundane routine, he encountered God.

I think we sometimes only expect to meet God on the mountain top, in a special church service or on a retreat. But think about how many people we encounter in Scripture who encountered God in the ordinariness of their daily lives.

Many of the first disciples were carrying out their ordinary job, fishing, or sitting in a tax booth when they encountered Jesus.

The Apostle John was exiled on a barren island where every day was the same, then one day, he encountered Jesus.

So don’t expect Jesus to only show up in a church service, or when you are at some big Christian conference. Why not like, Moses and the disciples, be open to encountering God in a new way in the midst of the ordinariness of your routine? I suspect our God loves to encounter people stuck in ruts and routines, surprising them in the ordinariness of their daily lives by His presence.

So, think about it, next time you feel your life is boring, remember your rut can be a route to meeting God in a fresh and powerful way.