Sometimes life feels less like a daring adventure and more like an assembly line.
Wash the clothes. Pack the lunches. Make the deadline. Gas the car. Ride the treadmill. Scratch the to-do list. Buy the groceries. Wrangle the inbox. Change the diaper. Wait in traffic. Pay the bills. Give the same presentation in a new way. Drink eight glasses of water. Pack and unpack the dishwasher. Pack and unpack the suitcase. Pack and unpack the restless feelings.
We step mindlessly from one assembly line to another, forgetting this is our one and only life.
More often than not, I think our issues and sin and discontentment stems out of sheer boredom. And boredom is born because we—as the song says—are looking for love in all the wrong places.
We scroll from screen to screen.
We move from activity to activity.
We transition from trend to trend.
We jump from one piece of breaking news to another piece of breaking news.
“Is this it?” we wonder. “Is this all there is? All we have to look forward to?” Sometimes we’re tempted to throw out the baby with the bathwater. Or tempted to stuff it all inside—filling ourselves up with paralyzing worry or hopelessness, which can silently poison our joy.
But this isn’t how it was supposed to be.
When Eden broke, something inside of us broke too. Our God-given intent was disfigured and distorted.
But as Leonard Cohen once said, “There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.”
We all have issues and problems and we’re caught in an endless cycle that will not let up. But God had a plan even before the world began. And that plan—Jesus—came willingly so that we might have life and have it to the full. Yes, He wants us to spend eternity with Him when all is eventually restored.
But He also came for the here and now—so that we might usher in His glory.
“Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10)
So that we’ll look at a watercolor sunrise and remember His faithfulness. So that we’ll hold a newborn baby and know that He’s constantly working new miracles. So that we’ll fold laundry and scrub toilets and wash dishes, recalling His provision. So that we’ll stare into the eyes of a friend or a parent or a spouse over coffee and feel that we are loved beyond explanation.
So that we’ll step into a messy situation and watch His redemptive plan take root in real life.
So that we’ll be empowered to create with the minds He’s given us—to glorify His name. So that as we laugh and play with our people, we will experience the evidence of His joy. So that as we read His living Word, it’ll transform our hearts as well as our perspective of the world around us. So that we’ll notice the vast oceans and the rugged mountains and the smile of a stranger and the curious mind of a child and, in those things, acknowledge His being.
For all things exist by Him.
Yes, our everyday lives are filled with mundane tasks. There’s no denying that. But all throughout history God has taken ordinary and hopeless and messed up people and totally rocked their world.
Let’s open our eyes to Him, friends.
Let’s live awake.
Let’s notice His whispers and fingerprints—which are constantly breaking our seemingly mundane assembly lines.
