It has been a chilly day predictably so for this time of year. It has also been a very ordinary day, at least it has for me. Today is fairly typical of what I did yesterday and last week and during the weekdays last year. Much of life is made up of very ordinary days. By ordinary I am referring to predictability; regularity; routine, etc.
Ordinary days are a blessing and they are a challenge.
They are a blessing because we need regularity in life. It gives us a sense of stability. Our lives would become chaotic if the sun didn’t rise and fall as expected; if we couldn’t find the things we need in the usual places; if our work situation was constantly changing; if our domestic circumstances were continually erratic. We need morning and evening, sixty minutes to the hour, summer and winter, patterns in working and family life. Our lives need regularity and routine. We should be thankful that God orders our world in such a way that it is stable.
Yet predictability is also one of the great challenges of life. While it creates stability it also creates monotony – the same thing day in and day out; little change; little out of the ordinary to excite and stimulate. Most people will not live on the cutting edge of discovery and adventure, but catching the same train and seeing the same faces and doing the same job or rarely escaping the four walls of the house engaged in the same weekly responsibilities. Even for the “movers and shakers” life is often still a drag. As Christians we need to see the monotony from a Biblical perspective.
Eph 6:5-8, “Bondservants, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in sincerity of heart, as to Christ; 6not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, 7with goodwill doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men, 8knowing that whatever good anyone does, he will receive the same from the Lord, whether he is a slave or free.”
1 Cor 10:31, “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”
Heb 4:15-16, “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
Our ordinary lives have eternal significance. We worship God when we undertake our responsibilities seeking to please Him. Christ sympathises as we endure the daily grind of this fallen world and He strengthens us as we look to Him.
Rejoice in stability and make the mundane meaningful by seeking the glory of God.