Watch. Stand. Pray. 365
Day 36 – Mundane DiligenceEvery skill has its non-glorifying, earthy, unspiritual routines that are essential to excellence. Don’t belittle them. Don’t think less of them. God considers them as your way of praising Him because God likes nice things.
There is much in the world that, if forgotten, the world would fall into decay. Regular, boring, daily rounds—even laundry—keep the world turning. That’s part of what God wants for us on Earth.
In the sense that practice makes perfect—or better said by better coaches practice makes permanent—the mundane errands of life train us in what it means that God is not only the Author and Creator, He is also the Sustainer. In computer coding terms, we might call God the Maintainer.
Doing laundry, washing your feed for thousands of hours over your life, commuting to work—these things teach us valuable wisdom that we might never fully know about until the afterlife. In a sense “restrooms” were appropriately named. Martin Luther had his “evangelical breakthrough” in the sixteenth century while sitting on the toilet. That reformed Europe.
Praise Jesus for poop!
It’s fascinating that I was already scheduled to write this now, which turned out to be “laundry day”. There is laundry on my floor, cooling as I type. Going to rotate the laundry—a philosophy topic all to itself—though frustrating, gave me reflection time to improve what I write here. It always does. Laundry is a “necessary disruption”, such as the “necessary disrupters” who keep a company profitable—the ones whom “team-oriented” leaders like to downsize.
In a business sense, there is money to be made in the mundane. This is one reason so many people remain poor. One of the best moneymaking ventures is in money itself: banking. Consider coffee, toilet paper, soap, groceries, stationary, first aid—some of the most profitable business sectors don’t require much innovation at all, just a knack for monotony well done.
If you hope to have progress, you can’t let monotonous chores overpower your day. Always read something that will improve your character, one reason daily Bible is vital. Schedule more difficult tasks first, but don’t curse maintenance. Maintenance on Earth is characteristic of the divine.
Genesis 8:20-22, Job 38:33-37, Psalm 36:6, Colossians 1:17, Hebrews 1:3, 2 Peter 3:7
