Practicing the piano.
Making dinner.
Going for a long bike ride.
Yes, these were some recent activities.
Some could call them mundane activities - just "the ordinary," right?
That is the mentality we need to fight, especially as Christians. I just started C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters (1942, HarperCollins: NY), a "conversation" between a senior and junior devil. (See here to read the first chapter on line). In chapter one, the senior devil is recommending ways for the junior devil to tempt a new Christian:
...they find it all but impossible to believe in the unfamiliar while the familiar is before their eyes. Keep pressing home on him the ordinariness of things (4, bold mine).
Isn't it so true that we are sometimes led to believe what we do from day to day is mundane?
The ordinary.
The unimportant.
Our eyes become glazed with the here and now and we lose sight of the big purpose and the role the small things have in that big purpose.
What is our attitude as we do the routine things?
With what is our mind occupied as we accomplish those tasks?
Do we see the many pleasures and delights in each of those situations, or the things that can remind us of characteristics of our loving Heavenly Father?
It may seem silly, but take washing dishes for example.
I can be grateful for the convenience of water that comes to my fingertips;
I can reflect on stewardship issues;
I can marvel at how the soap removes the grease and the chemistry behind that;
I can take delight in seeing dirty made clean, and think of my own sins being removed;
I can enjoy the feeling of the warm water;
I can use that time to pray or to recite Scripture, etc.
This of course is a very personalized list and by no means an endless list. The possibilities are endless. I'm not saying to hyper-spiritualize everything we do, but I am saying we should not become disillusioned with the things that seem "regular."
That robs joy!
Be challenged:
see the beauty,
enjoy the sounds,
cherish the fellowship,
commune with your Maker.
Do not allow Satan to convince God's people that this world is boring, or that our faith is boring, or that God is boring.
1 comment:
So true therese!
Not only do we get lost in the mundane, we get stuck in the 'now' and get focused on the 'me.' Like you said, we lose sight of the big picture. I'm reading a book called "Run with the Horses - The Quest for Life at Its Best" by Eugene Peterson, a very enlightening read. In it he talks about "depth-memory awareness". I like how those words remind me that I need to consistently re-member everything that has gone before me, and the great story that I'm a part of - these things that are of great depth and that must be nurtured deep within me. When this memory is so entrenched in me, then I can be aware in the present, in the midst of the 'mundane' how extra-ordinary my God is and how well he has equipped me to live out my faith in His world.
Much love,
Christy
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