Faithfulness In The Mundane
by Elden Zee
You went to a conference and you got fired up. In your heart, you know this is what Psalm 16:11 feels like: The joy of the Lord is overflowing in you. Then the conference ended, you went back to your home and you silently made God a promise that you will do whatever it takes to build Him a resting place. In the next set you are serving in, you sing those powerful songs that were in the worship during the conference and feel the exact same “rush”. But then reality comes knocking and you suddenly feel the full weight of drudgery, everything just feels…plain.
Sound familiar? That’s reality. More often than not, we find ourselves in the place of mundaneness, doing the same routine over and over again. An invisible tug-of-war is happening in our life between our work, family and our promise to build God a resting place. Although we usually keep silent, we find it wearying just to come and serve again in the next set.
Becoming a “man after God’s own heart” is established in the mundane.
But if we look in the Bible, aren’t there many characters who went through the mundane? Moses spent 40 years in mundane shepherd work in Midian; Elisha was a farmer before his break-out into the prophetic ministry; John the Baptist disappeared into the desert for the majority of his life before his ministry; Even Jesus was a carpenter for 90% of His life on earth. We often marvel and study these godly characters in the Bible, but behind their “big moments”, there are long periods of basically remaining in hiddenness. Do you know that David became a man after God’s own heart when he was doing a typical, secular job? If we translate this to a modern context, his job is like those normal 8-5pm everyday jobs. Yet it was in that place that God saw His heart and set him up for greatness.
So, if in the mundane is the place God forms us, what can we do practically to sharpen ourselves? What can we focus on to make the time of mundaneness fruitful? Here’s what I think:
1. Pursue Excellence
In Psalm 33:3, the Psalmist beckons us to sing a new song and play skillfully. And where better to do it than to do it in the House? I remember the leadership stated long ago that PenHOP is like a greenhouse, there’s no fear in failures and no condemnation in errors. Pursue polishing your God-given talent in serving. Try a new musical style, try a different drum beat, try making choruses or learn to sing harmonies. The mundane is the best time to polish up our skillsets because we have the time and space for the improvement. I believe God delights in our attempts to pursue excellence. If we cast out the fear of failure and push our limits, we can truly give our best to God and not dishonor Him by stewarding our talents in apathy. In all this, I always remember what the founder of the house said during one briefing: “If you fail, you fail gloriously in the presence of God. Let all things be unto the glory of God!” Haha.
2. Ask Hard Questions
We usually say the mundane is the secret place of pursuing intimacy with God and increasing in our understanding of Him. To take it a step further, I believe we need to ask the hard questions. Hard questions such as “Is God unjust?” and “Why does God allow suffering?”. Of course, we know that God is always just, and God is merciful and kind regardless of circumstances. But when life pulls a “Job situation” on you, a surface understanding will not help. It’s in the mundane, where we should come to God with these hard questions. Do not settle for simple answers, go deep in the Word and wrestle until God brings about a revelation that will root you and ground you. For if we don’t wrestle with the Word of God now, we will wrestle with being offended by God later.
3. Get in a Community
The Christian race is never meant to be run alone, we all need a community. And community doesn’t mean just appearing during prayer room hours, it’s the intentionality of meeting up outside of the prayer room in an effort to “spur each other to love and good deeds” (Hebrews 10:24). The key word is intentional because by default we don’t get along with everyone. However, just as the founder of PenHOP has said before: “God gives diversity and demands unity to train humility.” I always find it hard to mingle with people, being an introvert and all etc. Yet someone once told me, “you have to cut people some slack.” Don’t close yourself off from others, but be intentional to open up, be intentional to get to know one another and to meet up with one another. God has set us up in such a way that we need one another. There are issues in our lives that God is purposely wanting us to confront/overcome together as a community. It takes humility to be vulnerable to one another, but trust me, it’s worth it to have a family!
All in all, do not despise the mundane. Remain in faithfulness. If this is where God has placed you, don’t budge an inch until God moves you. You will look back one day and realize this seemingly mundane period of your life is where your heart and your character were most established in Him.
“Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.”
Jude 24-25