October 2026: Incongruous

Incongruous adjective : lacking congruity : not conforming : inconsistent within itself : lacking propriety

Incongruous is fun to say and hard to spell like many of my favorite words. It is one of the first words that comes to mind when I think of my train trip across country but only because of one particular moment. As I was traveling, I had a few hours in the main train station in Chicago. A towering structure with vaulted ceilings, beautiful architecture, gold details in all the right places, sunlight pouring in through the ceiling panels, marble statues and floors, and warm-toned wooden benches.

Within this impressive edifice, all these people rushing hither and yon, cross country folks like me with big suitcases slowly lumbering along and looking at every sign, the local commuters rushing to and fro without having to glance around to know their way, and a at least one pigeon. That’s right… a bird.

The pigeon was unexpected and today has me thinking about all the ways that God shows up in the places we do not expect. We plan to encounter God in Scripture, in worship, at a retreat, in Sunday School… but to find God out in the wild sometimes catches us off guard. Does this show an inconsistency in our belief of God’s omnipresence? Or simply our own forgetfulness?

God is present throughout the world so it must be that we, with our own limited scope, have forgotten the possibility of finding the Almighty away from the usual spaces. But perhaps the greater question is… are you looking for God in those places? Are you expecting God to show up? Or only when it’s convenient for you?