To be honest, a lot of my life in Africa felt more like mundane daily grind than anything else. Most things didn’t seem that noteworthy. And sometimes the monotony of mothering got to me.
As Ann Voskamp puts it, ‘Monotony can weaken faith more than catastrophe’.
Does this resonate with anyone other than me? As a mum living in a refugee camp a lot of my day was spent on non-glamorous, ordinary chores like cooking on the charcoal stove, caring for my child and sweeping dirt (sounds weird but it was normal to sweep dirt yards to make them look neat and tidy).
As I went about my day I observed the repetitive rhythms of life around me.
My neighbours wake and start each day sweeping the dirt of their compound. And then spend the rest of their day cooking and cleaning and washing in repetitive cycles.
I thought to myself, “How do they do all this monotonous work every day with little complaint?”
As I went about my daily tasks I would also watch my toddler go about his.
He seemed to delight in repetitive activities. From riding around the house again and again to playing with the same toy for hours. The simplest activities brought him so much joy.
And so I questioned my often-bad attitude towards the ordinary and repetitive activities in my day.
At sunset each evening, my little man enjoyed his outside bucket-bath. I would sit by him and wonder at creation.
Perhaps God Himself delights in repetition too?
He daily makes the sun rise.
He consistently nurtures His creation.
And He has been doing this for more years than I can imagine…
I wondered… does God perceive His daily work as monotonous?
I doubt it!
But how is it that our infinitely creative God has not yet tired of making the grass and daisies that we trample underfoot?
Was God trying to teach me something through the women around me, the creation He maintained and this sweet child of mine?
I checked out what other wise people had written on the mundane things of life. The thread through all the writing was that God uses our mundane daily grind to teach us about His Kingdom and His character.
So the ordinary and unexciting parts of our day are more important than we realise?
Bradley Nassif wrote that our desert fathers and mothers of the fourth and fifth century perceived mundane daily tasks as ‘soul work’. That the monotonous was ‘God’s heavenly sandpaper’. Through it God could ‘mold character, cleanse away impurity, and transfigure a person to reflect the beauty of Christ.’
The summary: ‘our highest vocation is not the kind of work we do, but the kind of people we become doing it.’
What a shift in perspective…
Rather than the endless small messes taking our gaze away from God, perhaps they can draw us to Him.
What about you? How do you rate your mundane daily life?
Will you invite Him into the ordinary parts of your day? My prayer for you is that you would see what He is doing amidst the unexciting and mundane parts of your day this week.
Grace and peace
Hope
FURTHER READINGS
Colossians 3:23 Whatever you do [whatever your task may be], work from the soul [that is, put in your very best effort], as [something done] for the Lord and not for men. (The Amplified Version)
An article by BRADLEY NASSIF. “Boring Work: Good for the Soul. No matter how monotonous, unseen, or ordinary, our jobs can powerfully transform us into Christlikeness.”
https://www.christianitytoday.com/CT/CHANNEL/UTILITIES/PRINT.HTML?TYPE=ARTICLE&ID=128392
Hallelujah in the Mountains 