“but those who hope in the Lord
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint”
(Isaiah 40:31 NIV)
Life is hard, fast, and complicated, and we are easily distracted by the demands … constantly juggling schedules with obligations. The overly-stretched soul is often self-absorbed and out of touch with the rest of the world, feeling like a Zombie in a high-octane world.
Sometimes God gives power in ways we cannot fathom.
Sometimes God lifts us up in a knock-me-on-my-feet revelation about life.
Sometimes he brings us to the mountaintop where he envelopes us with fresh breezes of love.
Sometimes he provides a supernatural energy so that we can complete an inspired task.
Other times, God visits us in our discouragement and prods us along when common sense tells us we should simply quit.
We recognize his power and grace in these circumstances.
However, God is often most prevalent when we are the least aware of his presence … through those every day, seemingly boring but necessary activities.
The hardest challenge life throws at us comes, not when soaring through the clouds or conquering great obstacles, rather in the mundane of life … painting the nursery, filling out tax returns, filing church reports, or putting up shelves. These tasks weigh us with a sense of purposelessness: a pastor who feels he spends more time drafting board meeting agendas than preparing a sermon … the mom who wonders if life consists only of changing diapers and burping babies … the social worker who must document every aspect of a client’s case. We feel like the walking dead as we plod along with a sense of futility.
The other day, I found myself in Zombieland … having to do a hundred miniscule tasks before I could tackle the one job I truly enjoyed in my current writing career … the creation of a manuscript … in my mind a story to rival Gone with the Wind.
God pinned my ears back, chastising me for my self-pity. Don’t you know that I am in those tasks you think beneath you? I am with you with every dish you scrub, every piece of paper you file.
Kind of puts a new light on trivial stuff, doesn’t it?
Sometimes those things we consider mundane are the very times God visits us in a special way. He tells us, “Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens …”(Isaiah 40:26a NIV).
God often has a blessing in store for us or a chance for us to be a blessing for someone else … but first we must look up as we sweep the vesituble.
Most of us remember Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, especially the iconic scene where Snow White encourages her woodland friends during the messy job of cleaning up the dwarfs cabin as she sings, “Whistle While you Work.”
Similarly, God desires for us to find joy in the seemingly routine, perhaps even when we slip on a fresh roll of toilet paper.
“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day (2 Corinthians 4:16 NIV)
