“It’s so great to see you!” Her exuberant spirit bubbles over as we catch up over a cup of coffee. “What’s new?” She asks enthusiastically.
What’s new? I go through potential responses in my head.
No career switches, church moves, or recent travels. Same house, same spouse. My life is pretty much the same as last time you asked this question. Just plugging along through the regular routine.
I eat cheesecake with another friend in celebration of her birthday. “It’s funny,” she comments. “Nothing really is changing in my life, yet time keeps moving on.”
And so it does. The days move from one to another as winter melts into spring and spring into summer, and just like that we’ve completed another rotation around the sun. Time moves forward, yet for many of us it feels like we are staying in the same place. We feel painfully boring when we look into the face of the friend with a new boyfriend, a new job, an upcoming move, a career switch, and tell her that our life is the same as always. Are you still interested in me, in my everyday life, enough to walk with me through seasons of sameness? Can we still be friends if nothing is new?
I am prone to resent this, these incessant patterns of same old same old.
It feels so normal, so small, so ordinary. When will it be my turn for a dramatic turn of events? Will I ever catch a glimpse of God in the midst of thunder and blazing bushes, something so profound that my life is radically altered? How long will I have to trudge through the boring paths of my mundane world?
My heart longs for a lifetime of mountain top experiences, but instead I find myself living daily life in the valley.
Yet, there’s nothing to do but get up each morning and continue forward.
I sip my coffee, scramble the eggs, watch children, and play piano. In the evening we go to drama rehearsal at the school and then return home for a bowl of cereal and another night’s sleep. Nothing is new, but maybe that doesn’t negate the good that is happening. Maybe it is precisely here that God has His greatest work in store for me. Because here, in the daily grind, is where He will do the careful, steady work of changing my heart. Maybe I won’t be transformed into His likeness by lightning bolts after all — but by the quiet, consistent patterns of daily life.
It takes days and days of faithfulness to change habitual patterns of disobedience, unloving attitudes, and disrespectful hearts. So God plants us here, for months and months, and steadily shapes us into the people He’s planned us to be. We slowly learn true love over a lifetime of waking up to the same person, we learn patience by dealing with the same children hour after hour, we learn endurance by going to the same job every morning, we find depth when forced to walk along the same path every day.
And maybe after five hundred days of normal life we will look up and realize that something is new. Our hearts.
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Love this! It can be difficult to look for blessings in the mundane every day tasks. Yet God continues to be faithful and sovereign even though we don’t deserve it most of the time. This is a great reminder to look at ways He is working even in the grind of daily life. Thank you for this post!
Thanks Carrie! Yes – the daily grind seems to be where I find God working most often! I am so glad you stopped by this morning, blessings on your journey!
I love the reminder that God can and does work through all situations and circumstances, mundane and dramatic. Amen! I also thought how funny it is that we get bored with “same old same old”, yet we can be afraid of or resistant to change. Not a reproof, just a thought…
I agree completely – I resent the days of sameness but as soon as things change all I want is to go back. We are such fickle creatures! Thanks for sharing this thought, Beth!
Thank you for sharing, Greer. This is a wonderful post. There can be both beauty and comfort as we walk familiar paths and allow God to shape us right where we are. He often appears to us in extraordinary ways on ordinary days, if we will but have the eyes to see. My circumstances have not changed in quite some time, so I appreciate this encouragement both not to allow that to lead me to dissatisfaction or despair, but rather to delight, as I realize that God is with me and guides my path with my every footfall, with my every breath. God bless you.
Love
Lynn
Thank you, Lynn, for stopping by. I am so glad this was encouraging to you. Yes, God is working and active in all things – opening our eyes to His ways is the hard part! Blessings on your journey!
Greer,
Just when I get comfortable in my “rut” as I call it…God, in His wisdom, usually shakes things up. There is beauty in learning to be faithful and obedient in the new, but there’s also confidence born of being faithful and obedient in the “same old, same old”. Good food for thought here this am.!
Blessings,
Bev
Yes – in new and old God is shaping us! So glad you stopped by this morning, Be. May your journey be blessed!
I needed this like air this morning. Thanks for teaching me that the routine-ness of my life is for the purpose of growing my character. I’m not supposed to have those traits, patience, deep abiding love. Thank you!
It is amazing how much there is for us to learn in the dailiness of our lives. So glad you were invigorated by this, Andrea. Blessings on your routine!
This is me without a husband or children! God in the mundane! You’re new is that you’ve been featured here! I like the idea of changing my heart amidst the ordinary. Thank you!
You’re welcome, Louise! Thank you for stopping by.
I love this! There are days when I feel I am in such a rut and want to have things shaken up but then I realize that for the most part, I love the rut. The way I look at it, when I am doing the same thing every day with no shake ups, it means God has me moving steadily forward in His plan.
God works in all seasons – sometimes we’re in a “rut” and sometimes we’re shaken up. So glad you stopped by, blessings on your journey!
Greer, such a great post. I feel like every day is about the same too. Different appointments perhaps, but same old, same old. And yet, when we can see the beauty in the routine, the glorious, gradual changing God is doing in our hearts and lives, that’s when we see the new. LOVED this post.
Thank you, Jeanne! Your comment is so encouraging to me! Blessings on your day – may it be glorious!
Thank you to our heavenly Father and you, Greer, for this wonderful post 🙂 In the middle of our stories, Jesus works so tenderly to shape us in the soil and fruits of our souls. Thank you for this great reminder to focus on what He is doing, cooperating with His mercy, love, and grace in obedience 🙂 He is always right and faithful. May each of us see the beauty that He is so tenderly shaping in us as His clay in His potter hands 🙂 Hugs to each of you 🙂
Thank you so much for your sweet words of encouragement! I am so blessed by this comment!
Good thoughts! I’m currently reading a book “Simply Tuesday” by Emily P Freeman. She writes about how we should the good in the small parts of our lives. In the routine. We need to set our minds on Him no matter the routine or in the challenge. Thanks for sharing, Greer.
I loved Simply Tuesday! The small things in the midst of ordinary dailiness definitely matters! Thanks for reading, Becky!
So very well spoken Greer 🙂 Every single day same routine can get the best and the worst of us. Loved your insight and hope for deepening our purpose in the day after day path to whats next! Funny how we can make crazy seasons not exciting isn’t it! Thank you ` Jen
Thank you so much Jen! Yes, I am definitely guilty of getting bored of even the craziest of seasons.
I appreciate this post. A few weeks ago when I got my haircut I mentioned that I had been in the garment industry in NY in my early 20’s. My hairdresser was so excited and said that it was the most interesting discussion she’d ever had with me (after 5 or so years of going to her and some honest sharing of my life). I know she didn’t mean to dis me, but it hurt, as I struggle to believe I’m interesting or worthwhile or that God is working in me as I struggle through daily life now (I’m almost 53). Thanks for the reminder that he is. I know my heart has changed when I think about it, but it’s easy to overlook or not recognize compared to the visible and new. Plus, responding that “my heart is new” sounds awkward 🙂
What a perfect story to tie into these thoughts, Kelly. It is sometimes so hard to feel like we have anything interesting or worthwhile to share. It does feel a little awkward to say “oh, but my heart is new!”- but at least we can know that God is at work, even when others might not see anything of interest.
Greer,
I long for rut and routine!! For the past two years I have/am having trials with my aging dad. In the routine quiet of life I can stop and talk to and listen to God. If we would just stop during our daily routine and listen for His voice we would find an inner peace!!
Blessings 🙂
I can completely understand your desire for routine, Beth. I know that must be an exhausting task. May you find some moments of stillness!