PAY ATTENTION.

The Durrell Brown Journal

Issue No. 004

A reflection by Durrell Brown

I don't know exactly when I started noticing hummingbirds.

Maybe they've always been there.

Maybe I was just moving too fast to see them.

But this year... I couldn't stop noticing them.

I'd catch one hovering in the distance. Another crossing my path. Another suspended in the air for what felt like just long enough to remind me it was there.

And every time was like the first.

I never reached the point where I thought, "Oh... just another hummingbird."

Every sighting made me stop.

Every sighting made me smile.

Every sighting invited wonder.

A few days ago, I got a hummingbird tattooed on my head.

yes, really, I did.

don't believe me? look ...

Since then, I've been asked the same question over and over.

"Why a hummingbird?"

To be honest...

The simplest answer is because I love them.

I think they're one of the most beautiful parts of God's creation.

They're small, but unforgettable.

Swift, yet somehow still.

Common enough to exist around us, yet rare enough that every encounter feels like a gift.

I didn't choose the hummingbird because I read a book about what it symbolizes.

I chose it because it had already become meaningful to me.

It had quietly become part of this season of my life.

People have also asked me, "Why your head?"

Honestly...

Because that's where I wanted it.

I've wanted a head tattoo for a long time, and when I thought about this hummingbird, it just felt right.

Every tattoo I have marks a season.

Not because ink changes a person.

But because reminders have a way of keeping us connected to what we never want to forget.

As I've reflected on it, I realized something.

Maybe this journal isn't really about a tattoo.

Maybe it's about attention.

I've learned that we all go through seasons where God is teaching us something.

Sometimes it's patience.

Sometimes it's surrender.

Sometimes it's trust.

Sometimes it's healing.

Sometimes we don't even have words for what He's doing.

We just know He's doing something.

And in those seasons, I've noticed something about God.

He doesn't always shout.

Sometimes He simply keeps placing something in front of us until we learn to notice.

For me, this season, it was hummingbirds.

For you...

Maybe it's been a conversation you can't shake.

A Scripture that keeps finding you.

A burden you can't ignore.

A sunrise you've suddenly started appreciating.

A person who's been on your heart.

An unexpected opportunity.

Or maybe it's something so ordinary that you've almost dismissed it because it didn't seem spiritual enough.

But what if it wasn't random?

What if it was an invitation?

Jesus once said,

"Consider the lilies."

He didn't tell people to master them.

He didn't tell them to debate them.

He simply invited them to look.

To pay attention.

Creation has always been one of God's classrooms.

And I wonder how many lessons we've missed because we were waiting for God to do something spectacular, while He was faithfully speaking through something ordinary.

The older I get, the more I realize that one of the greatest gifts I can ask God to preserve isn't knowledge.

It's wonder.

Because familiarity has a way of stealing our attention.

We stop noticing the things that once made us stop.

We rush past moments we used to treasure.

We become experts at seeing without actually noticing.

I don't want to lose that.

I don't want hummingbirds to become ordinary.

I don't want grace to become ordinary.

I don't want prayer to become ordinary.

I don't want people to become ordinary.

And I don't want God to become familiar enough that I stop expecting Him to meet me in the everyday moments of life.

So yes...

I got a hummingbird tattoo.

Not because everyone should.

Not because tattoos are necessary.

But because I wanted to carry a reminder from this season into every season that follows.

A reminder to slow down.

A reminder to notice.

A reminder that God often whispers before He shouts.

Maybe the question isn't why I got a hummingbird tattoo.

Maybe the better question is...

What keeps showing up in your life that you've stopped paying attention to?

Maybe God isn't trying to say something louder.

Maybe He's inviting you to listen more closely.

Open Here

1. What has consistently been getting your attention lately?

2. Where have you mistaken repetition for coincidence?

3. What would change if you believed God could speak through ordinary moments?

Pay attention.

--

With Love,

Durrell Brown

The Love Enthusiast