“Everything’s boring, utterly boring—no one can find any meaning in it. Boring to the eye, boring to the ear. What was will be again, what happened will happen again. There’s nothing new on this earth. Year after year it’s the same old thing. Does someone call out, “Hey, this is new”? Don’t get excited—it’s the same old story.”
The author of the Biblical book of Ecclesiastes had it pretty well pegged. Sometimes you feel like a hamster on an exercise wheel: Lots of motion but going absolutely nowhere. The mundane, the routine, catches up with us at times and wearies our very beings.
God is a lavish Father Who wants His sons and daughters to experience abundance, to enjoy and value life, variety and creativity. When He made the universe, He designed a stunning array of animals, plants, birds, flowers, insects, and fish as well as inanimate objects such as stars and planets.
And then the first human beings chose to rebel against their Creator’s best for them, chose to think they knew better. The evil innate in their decision corrupted their beautiful world and the work of caring for the rest of God’s creation was marked with the curse of drudgery:
“The very ground is cursed because of you; getting food from the ground will be as painful as having babies is for your wife; you’ll be working in pain all your life long.
The ground will sprout thorns and weeds, you’ll get your food the hard way, planting and tilling and harvesting sweating in the fields from dawn to dusk…”
The abundant living we were meant to enjoy in God ‘s presence was twisted into self-focused, self-serving and self-worshipping grasping. We now often judge one another by the size of our salaries, the amount and quality of our possessions, or the level of our education. Most of us are familiar with the quote: “He who dies with the most toys wins.” Someone countered that with, “He who dies with the most toys still dies.”
In our western culture, we are always looking for the next exciting thing, the latest entertainment. Our attention spans are shrinking fast and we tend to think that life is worthwhile only if it’s exciting, fun, and fast. When things take on a numbing sameness, when the honeymoon period is over whether it’s a job, a marriage, parenthood or a ministry, we may begin to whether we’ve made the right choice and look for an out.
Christians are not immune from the excitement addiction. Among some circles, there has been the mindset that real life in God involves daily spiritual highs that include signs and wonders and hearing the voice of the Lord in very clear and dramatic ways.
There’s nothing wrong with a sense of adventure and striving to live life to the fullest. I have a very creative, dramatic personality and actually do need variety. I get bored quickly and need a change after several years of doing the same thing. I honestly do not believe this is immaturity or a character flaw but just how I am wired.
I am also not saying that fun is wrong or that we should not have and enjoy nice things. But it is what place these things have in our lives and why we have them that is important.
Constant excitement is like a drug. We need more and more of it to satisfy us as the first “fix” wears off. In addition, we are kept at a stress level that, though it may feel pleasurable, is unhealthy physically, psychologically and spiritually. And we may be using that glamour and glitz as a substitute for the One who alone can give us a truly fulfilled life.
Life has its “seasons” just as the natural world does. There is a reason for winter when the land rests. Similarly, the mundane has a number of purposes.
1. It gives us rest from the stress of constant excitement and the pressure to find something “fun.” It provides a framework of structure that helps to provide stability in our lives.
2. We develop persistence. This is also true in our walk with God. The spiritually dry times push us to seek Him with more determination and if we keep at it, we will reap the rewards. The discipline of the mundane is like the athlete who pushes through the pain of repetitious physical training to develop a toned body that is ready to “win the race.”
3. We can develop excellence. “Practice makes perfect.” When we have mastered the rudiments of a task, we can fine-tune what we do. Of course, familiarity can breed contempt—and sloppiness. But such a response only reveals lack of character, just as striving for excellence reveals good character.
4. We can exercise our creativity. If we are bored, we can learn to think outside the box—find ways to bring freshness to the job, the relationship the list of chores. Being creative at work might even net you a promotion.
5. It can drive us to seek something more. Boredom and routine may give us the courage to grab hold of our dreams and fulfill them. In a marriage, the mundane should not push us to find someone else but to seek the Lord’s guidance for the relationship for which we vowed loyalty until death. One caution: In our desperation to escape boredom and find change, we can be prone to make impulsive, unwise decisions we will later regret.
6. The mundane makes us grateful for the fun, exciting things. When we say that we “treated” ourselves to something, we usually mean we are giving ourselves a rare pleasure. Having those pleasures all the time, however, would turn even them into the mundane or routine.
7. If we are willing to open the eyes of our hearts, we can see the good in the midst of the boredom and develop a more profound sense of gratitude. We learn the true value of the “small” blessings of life.
The Lord wants to transform our mundane routines. He is with us when life is exciting, tragic, boring or confusing. He is there to give us comfort and wisdom and show us how we can view the mundane differently and allow Him to turn it into joy
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