We are told to run away from the mundane.

 

Glamorize the high points. Only show the fancy date nights, vacations and “good days”. But what if these mundane days, the ones without glitter - these are the good ones?

 

I wonder if the repulsion we feel about the normal, quiet Tuesday has less to do with Tuesday's tasks and more to do with a lie we've believed. The lie: This is not a day the Lord has made. You cannot rejoice in it. 

 

It's a simple line, the kind we say in Sunday School. And yet it holds an ancient truth: All days are days the King has granted, and all days are worthy of our joy.

 

There are a lot of things I haven't learned and a lot of qualities I don't possess. But one thing I have learned and lived and can say with integrity: mundane days matter, and there is a way to wake up to them with vision and joy. I have experienced this for the last ten years. Those ten years have spanned some of the hardest days of my life; they've spanned a skin disease, betrayal, our worst marriage years, the loss of my husband's job, a terrible work environment, and late nights of no sleep with small children. And all ten of those years were made up of mundane, boring, unexciting days like this one.

 

But when you pile them together into a mosaic of consistent choosing, of intentional joy, you have a masterpiece. It's like the adage of the tapestry: during the weaving the back of it looks messy and unintentional. But for those whose hands and hearts move each thread in worship, the end result is beauty.

 

I believe there is beauty here. I believe every day holds a beauty and adventure yet to be discovered, right here in my home - not somewhere else. And because I look for it here, I find it here. This is the secret to enjoying your mundane life. God made this day as part of your great, grand, adventure in Him. You're doing something WITH Him and He is doing something WITH you, in this day - and not another one. If we miss what He is doing in this mundane day, we will eventually miss what He was doing in our lives. The little days and hours, our choosing within them, are the threads of His tapestry.

 

So yes, you'll do the same things every day. But not in the same way. Each day you do the dishes with a greater and deeper worship. Each day, you get better at listening to the Spirit's voice when you're angry. Each day, you can see some glimmer of God's image in the laugh of your coworker. Each day, you can rejoice in the fun that's underneath the simple things.

 

Our alternative is to ignore the beauty and wait for a mountaintop. But that's a long wait, and God doesn't ask us to live that way. He has provided much along the pathway to the high points. And, I think, when we notice those little beautiful, funny, lovely things in the unseen places, we find the valley isn't so boring after all. Sometimes we prefer it to the mountain.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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