I haven’t read a lot by Christian writer and poet and preacher Frederick Buechner, but he passed away this week. One reflection on his work and influence included the quote below, which I found especially insightful and moving.

Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery that it is. In the boredom and pain of it no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace.

Frederick Buechner (1926-2022)

So much of our lives consist of the ordinary, even mundane. Yet our lives are infused with meaning and purpose—perhaps as much in our everyday lives as they are in more exceptional moments. I love the phrase, “Listen to your life.” It’s in our normal, run of the mill routines where we encounter the grace of God.

How much more love and gratitude and joy and peace might we know if we paid attention to Buechner’s advice?

May God help us listen to our lives so that we may have ears to hear how he is speaking to us through them.