Appreciating Where You Are

There is a marvelous scene at the end of the animated movie Soul that contains a marvelous lesson. The movie is about Joe Gardner (voiced by Jaime Foxx) an extremely talented but highly frustrated jazz musician who dreams of plying his craft on a larger stage, but feels as though he is wasting his gifts as a high school music teacher. Finally, he gets the opportunity to perform at one of the best jazz clubs in New York City. When the event is over, Joe has a conversation with Dorothea Williams (voiced by Angela Bassett), and shares that he thought he would feel much differently now that he has finally arrived at “the place” that he had spent most of life trying to get to. Dorothea looks at him with a knowingly glance, and then tells a story about a young fish who was swimming in the ocean and asked an older fish where he could find water. Surprised by the question, the older fish informs the young fish that he is already in the ocean. Disappointed by and skeptical of this response, the younger fish fires back back to the older fish: “this ain’t the ocean. This is just water.” Joe stares at Dorothea with a confused look on his face as she jumps into a taxi and drives off.

The point she was trying to make is that he was already where he was trying to go! Now that I think of it, that may also be one of the main points of the movie itself. Like Joe Gardner, so many of us are in such a hurry to get to a certain place in our lives, that we fail to consider that we may already be there. We often fail to appreciate who we are, what we have, and and ESPECIALLY where we are. How often have you heard yourself saying or thinking “I’m not where I want to be?” We are all so busy looking for the ocean that we may not realize that we might already be in it!

This is the same lesson that God had to teach Moses in the book of Exodus. Moses had grown up as royalty in the rarefied precincts of Egyptian splendor. Egypt was the wealthiest nation of its day, and Moses was the adopted son of the King. But although he was the scion of this privileged environment, when he turned 40 Moses committed a terrible crime that caused him to flee far from his hometown, and take up residence in a strange and much less opulent environment. He traded his royal robes for a shepherds cloak, and spent the next 40 years of his life tending sheep on what the Bible calls the “backside of the desert.” It was in that place that Moses would have an encounter that would change his life, and all of human history. This is what happened:

One day Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led the flock far into the wilderness and came to Sinai, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the middle of a bush. Moses stared in amazement. Though the bush was engulfed in flames, it didn’t burn up. This is amazing,” Moses said to himself. “Why isn’t that bush burning up? I must go see it.” When the Lord saw Moses coming to take a closer look, God called to him from the middle of the bush, “Moses! Moses!” “Here I am!” Moses replied. “Do not come any closer,” the Lord warned. “Take off your sandals, for you are standing on holy ground. Exodus 3:1-5

It didn’t seem as though Moses was in a particularly desirable place. What could possibly be desirable about the “backside of the desert?” The backside of the desert is an uncomfortable place (It is extremely hot). The backside of the desert is an isolated place (There are no plush condos or luxury malls in the desert. Well, maybe except in Dubai lol). And the backside of the desert is a lonely place (The desert habitat is not hospitable for growth). However, God told Moses that the place he was standing on was Holy Ground! Imagine! That uncomfortable, isolated, lonely place is holy ground! Ground so holy that you are going to have a God encounter. Ground so holy that you will never be the same when you leave. Ground so holy that all of human history will reverberate with the echo of this encounter—on the backside of the desert.

You may feel like you are on the backside of the desert right now.

You may be in an uncomfortable place.

You may be in an isolated place.

You may be in a barren place.

You may even be in a lonely place.

But you may also be standing on Holy Ground. You may be looking for the ocean…and you are already in it.

Don’t be so quick to disregard, diminish, dismiss or decamp from your current environment. All of us are tempted to think if we “traded places” with someone our lives would improve. But perhaps you are standing on Holy Ground.

I have learned that the path to being special is always through the ordinary.

The ordinary IS special.

The backside of the desert is Holy Ground.

The water is the ocean.