The Marvelous Mundane

From Gospel Translations

Embracing the Slow Work of God

The young mom is alone with her infant, covered in sweat, urine, and drool. Life feels unremarkable and repetitive. Another load of laundry waits impatiently. The dishwasher begs to be unloaded. Another diaper cries to be changed. The early years of parenting can feel like emptying a bathtub with a teaspoon: it takes far too long and goes much too slow.

The caretaker of an aging parent is weary and spent. Did she eat yet? Did he take his medicine? Can we afford transitional care? Who will fill the gap if we want to get away? There are no cheering crowds on this arduous road. The labor of love is slow plodding, but still physically and mentally exhausting.

The midlife man labors on with no end in sight. He doesn’t love his job, but it pays the bills and puts food on the table. His aches and pains grow, along with his waistline, a little more each year. He toils away to support those he loves, but he wonders if this is it. Why does life feel so insignificant?

The twentysomething graduates with a crisp degree in hand. Yet employers are unimpressed, and jobs are elusive and underpaid. She punches the clock at a local coffee shop, waiting for HR departments to return her calls. Post-graduation, she didn’t anticipate making hazelnut oat-milk lattes all day. What’s next?

Is God working amid the mundane moments of life?

Seasons of routine, monotony, and uncertainty can cause us to question. Is this what I’m called to? Should I be doing something else or continuing down this familiar path? Sometimes, God uses our restlessness to awaken us. We should be doing something different. God is moving us on and using this uncertainty to get us to where we need to be. But in other cases, wisdom dictates that we stay and plod away. Yet we might still wonder, Is God working?

We know the right answer is yes, but what if we can’t see or feel God’s presence? Where can we find some assurance that God is working amid the mundane moments of our lives?

Patience in Plodding

First, the Bible reminds us to be patient in our plodding. Jesus teaches his disciples that the Christian life is like farming. The seeds of God’s word, when planted in good soil, “bear fruit with patience” (Luke 8:15). It takes years to reach maturity. Roots need time to grow deep. Trunks need time to thicken. Branches need time to strengthen enough to sustain the weight of fruit.

“Christ is at work not only in the high points of life — when we scale the Alps — but also in the valleys and plains.” Almost anything worthwhile takes time. Thousands of expressions of love and loyalty cultivate a beautiful marriage. Raising children into God-fearing men and women takes blood, sweat, and tears over many years. Building a godly congregation calls for decades of faithful plodding and preaching. Transforming a community, city, or nation doesn’t happen overnight. God generally does not rush his work of sanctification. He slowly but surely works to conform us to the image of his Son.

Lord of the Lowlands

Second, the apostle Paul’s letters reveal God at work in ordinary people doing unremarkable things to accomplish his divine purposes.

At the end of Colossians, Paul mentions Tychicus and Onesimus, couriers who likely delivered the letters to the saints at Colossae and Ephesus as well as to Philemon (Colossians 4:7–9; Ephesians 6:21). They are beloved brothers and faithful ministers, postal carriers doing gospel ministry. Because they faithfully carried out their task, these letters continue to ring out today.

Christ’s kingdom advances through the labors of apostles, yes, but also through ordinary, faithful saints. Some are singled out in Paul’s letters, but most remain unnamed. They are the nobodies of church history, yet their labors will echo through eternity. Christ is at work not only in the high points of life — when we scale the Alps — but also in the valleys and plains. He is Lord when we traverse the lowlands and even when we are mired in the pit. He is at work in the crevices of life.

Tychicus could have gotten cold and used one of the parchments as firewood. He and Onesimus could have abandoned the mission when a more lucrative opportunity presented itself. Yet they faithfully carried out their mission. God works through the small obedience of letter couriers and co-laborers to build his church.

Never a Dull Moment

Third, every stage, role, or season of life is an opportunity to glorify God. Earlier in Colossians, Paul addresses wives, husbands, children, fathers, bondservants, and masters (Colossians 3:18–4:1). He doesn’t assume that what we do at home, in marriage, at work, or out in the fields is unimportant. Wives are to submit to their husbands “as is fitting in the Lord” (Colossians 3:18). Children are to obey their parents, “for this pleases the Lord” (Colossians 3:20). Bondservants are to obey in everything, “fearing the Lord” (Colossians 3:22). Such faithful obedience honors God.

The banner over this section is Colossians 3:17: “Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus.” We can honor Jesus Monday through Friday and on the weekend. We can do it when the tasks are mundane or monotonous. In one sense, there is never a dull moment. At any moment and in every task, we can act as unto the Lord! We can labor not to get money, respect, or the approval of others, but to please God.

C.S. Lewis famously writes that there are “no mere mortals.” Everyone has an everlasting soul. Similarly, there are no mundane moments. Our jobs, family time, house projects, and yard work is not inconsequential. We can eat, drink, and do all for the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31). Christ is at work in the common things.

Christ in the Commonplace

God is always working — do we see it? He’s actively working in the crevices and commonness of life. Monotony is not contrary to faithful gospel labor. Rather, faithfulness is cultivated in the furnace of routine, where we learn discipline, develop steadfastness, cultivate patience, and foster eyes to see Christ at work.

While faithful plodding gets no fanfare, our labors in Christ will not be in vain. We honor Christ as we go about the millions of little moments in our lives: holding a baby, cooking a meal, leading our home, providing through work.

So, if life feels boring, the days feel long, the tasks feel mundane, and the plodding feels like it’s gone on long enough, take heart. God is transforming you — moment by moment, day by day, year by year — into the image of his Son. He is strengthening your faith muscles so that you might be “steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:58).