The Joy Of Routine
All of the Christmas decorations have been packed away. There are no more parties or family get-togethers on the calendar. The kids are all going back to school and it’s time for you to return to your daily routine, and you might just be dreading it. You could be going back to a job you love or one you hate. It could be the return of the household chores for a stay-at-home mom or the repetition of school work for students. The daily grind, the monotony of routine, can be, well, boring. You can feel the joy draining away, especially after the fun of the holidays.
The Struggle Is Real
From the beginning, work has been part of creation. God created mankind in His image to rule over and subdue the earth; to be co-workers with God over what He had created. But with Adam and Eve’s sin came the curse of toilsome work. Suddenly work was hard. It was backbreaking. It was boring.
You might only think about Adam farming the land, struggling to pull up weeds, and then barely harvesting any fruit from all of his labor. But it also looks like sitting at a desk and answering the phone day in and day out, or putting up with the same rude customers everyday, or homework or writing reports or daily chores.
“Sin didn’t just make work hard, it made it boring.”
Work can sometimes rob us of our joy because it becomes about us. You work day in and day out towards a single goal, and the reward doesn’t come, so you become bitter. Or you feel stuck in a low-level job when you thought you would be doing more with your life by now, and you become bitter. Or the kids never say thank you, the house gets dirty again and you feel underappreciated, and you become bitter.
Work can quickly become difficult when we start focusing on how we’re not having fun, or finding any satisfaction in it, or we think we’re not getting as much out of our work as we thought we would. But the writer of Ecclesiastes tells us “there is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his work. This also, I saw is from the hand of God, for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?”
Beauty In The Routine
God is a worker too. From the creation of the heavens and earth to the healing work in Jesus’ ministry, our God is active and creative. A lot of that work is repetition and routine. From the daily rising and setting of the sun to the making of each and every flower in a field, God glories in the monotonous repetition of the universe we live in. Why? Because every part of it speaks to His glory.
“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.”
Psalm 19:1-2
When work starts to feel repetitive and boring, we need new eyes and hearts to see our routine as pleasing to God. Our fallen, sinful world is disordered and chaotic. We are called to shape the world we live in, to bring order to it. That may look like organizing paperwork, filing reports, sweeping the kitchen, washing dishes, or serving coffee. When we carry out these routine tasks with joy, we exercise order in a disorderly work and we reflect the faithfulness of our Father. Even if your work doesn’t resonate with your sense of calling, look for a way in which it does something good and connect that to the goodness of God.
Sometimes we need new eyes to see our work as an opportunity to invest redemptively in the people around us. Those repetitive, monotonous tasks give you time to pray for or build relationships with your co-workers. It provides you with a natural way to minister to those around you, to demonstrate your faithfulness in God, and to introduce loving or pleasant conversations into your workplace. Instead of focusing on the drudgery of work, look to see how you can shape your work environment into something better.
But the opportunity to shape the environment around us isn’t the only thing that can bring joy back into our work. We can also rejoice in the way that God shapes us through our routine, even the boring parts. I am reminded of a sermon I heard years ago from 1 Samuel 16 and the anointing of David as the future king of Israel. In verse 13, David is anointed by Samuel and then, where does David go? Not to Jerusalem to sit on the throne, or even to start training and learning how to be king. He goes back to the pasture to tend the sheep. It is in the pasture that God develops David’s skills.
What he learned in the pasture helped him fight Goliath, not just because he practiced with his slingshot, but he also learned to find his courage and strength from God. In his down time, as the sheep grazed in the field, he played his harp and wrote parts of the Psalms. And he probably learned humility and patience as God taught him to wait and trust in His timing.
Every difficulty and challenge we encounter with our work gives God the opportunity to develop our character. As we take our eyes off of ourselves and what we can get out of work, and focus on God as the source of our joy and reward, we can start to rejoice in the monotony because we know that our work pleases the Lord. Whether we work in offices or classrooms or kitchens, we are “full-time ministers” for Christ.