I’ll never forget the moment Ricardo approached me on that dirt road in Tijuana, Mexico.  I was busy working with the rest of our 15 person team during one of our many trips to build houses for those in need in Mexico. He walked right up to me and, in between my swings of the hammer, called me by name.

It caught me off guard because I didn’t think I knew this man. As we stood their face to face and looked into each other’s eyes, a smile crept across both our faces. We hugged and laughed. It now was clear.

Ricardo was the husband of a family that we had built a house for more than 3 years earlier. It was a sacred moment standing there with Ricardo. Somehow we both knew the feeling we were experiencing was way deeper than even the dramatic gift of a house. There was a connection between two human beings.

Years later, Abraham Heschel’s words from his book The Sabbath reminded me of this encounter.

“The higher goal of spiritual living is not to amass a wealth of information, but to face sacred moments…[I]t is not a thing that lends significance to a moment; it is a moment that lends significance to things.”

Stepping Back from the Baggage Claim in every day life is about pausing in between swings of the hammer, slowing down in the hectic spaces in our world, and embracing the sacred moments. Today, in the midst of ‘to do’ lists and crowded calendars, how can we face the sacred moments in our lives?

Jason Barger, 11-time Amor leader and author of the book, Step Back from the Baggage Claim:  Change the World, Start at the Airport