The past weekend we had a wonderful church retreat. The theme of the retreat was, “Walking with God.” One of the sessions we looked at a topic called, “finding God in the mundane”.
The original meaning of the word, “mundane”, refers to something that is of the world or common. And the antonym of mundane is extraordinary or supernatural.
Most of our days are lived in the mundane activities of life, so how do we find God in the mundane, or the ordinary day to day life? How do we experience God in the shopping runs, the post office lines or the busy highway?
We are really good at compartmentalizing our lives. We create “God” times and then we have mundane times, where we live the “real” life. The “God” times are the personal devotionals, the church or prayer meeting attendance and the ministry times. Whereas the “real” times are the times spent behind a desk or workbench, exercising, eating, doing chores and the like.
We experience special moments with God in different worship settings or times alone with God, but what happens on Monday morning when God feels far off, and you don’t have those exciting feelings of being in His presence? Does it mean that God is not there when we don’t feel Him?
We know that God is always there. He is always near and as a believer we have the presence of the Holy Spirit within us whether we feel it or not. Our feelings do not determine the nearness of God.
Paul Tripp writes, “If God doesn’t rule your mundane, then He doesn’t rule you. Because that’s where you live.”
Dramatic, life-altering moments come only a few times during our lifetime, and the rest of our lives are lived in the common, ordinary, the mundane. We must always remember that it is our faith that overcomes the world and not our feelings (1 John 5:4).
The Bible is filled with promises of God’s presence with us, (for example, Psalm 16:8, Psalm 145:18, Jeremiah 23:23, and John 15:15).
What if we were able to change the way we view our mundane activities? What if we viewed everything we did from an eternal perspective?
Mother Teresa once said, “Wash the plate, not because it’s dirty, nor because you’re told to wash it, but because you love the person who’ll use it next.”
We must be careful of the “next big thing” mentality. Attending conferences, going on mission trips, or hosting big church events, as the way we gauge the health of our Christian life. But what if the next big thing in your life was serving someone by sweeping the room?
While we often encounter the Lord in special times, sometimes it is in the monotony and the mundane that God shows up. God can speak to you while you are doing the fifth load of laundry or sweeping the kitchen floor.
Jesus said in John 15, “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:4-5.
Abiding is living day-in and day-out in the presence of the Lord, whether it is a routine day or an extraordinary day. As you love those around you by folding laundry, scrubbing dishes, and searching for mismatched socks, remember that there He is with you.
When we live with an eternal perspective, we will always live in the supernatural and extraordinary.