Meaning in the Mundane

Are you an Average person who wants to live an Extraordinary Life? Find Meaning in the Mundane. I know that doesn’t sound exciting but Meaning in the Mundane is where you will find some of the most extraordinary moments of life. Mundane by definition is characterized as practical, ordinary, or commonplace. Tasks that are mundane never seem extraordinary at the time you are doing them. Seasons that are mundane never seem to be extraordinary when you are walking through them. How does mundane become extraordinary? Let me explain.

Let’s look at a financial example to explain this principle. When you save money and you start early in life you enjoy the benefits of compounding interest. Compounding interest rewards your minuscule monthly savings with a massive payout in the end. Compounding interest does the hard work to get you the gains you need. Once you have made the deposit it continues to grow,. If done correctly the payout at retirement is larger than any amount you could have saved for in a lump sum. The mundane task of saving means you have an enjoyable retirement

How about a mom example. You have a baby. They are cute, cuddly and poop a lot. For years, day and night you change their diapers, wipe their too-shies and get peed on as a reward. It's a dirty mundane task but someone has to do it. Then one day it’s time to potty train. You read the potty training book. You purchase stickers, treats, and fancy “big kid” underwear as incentives. You read books to your kids about pooping in the potty! All of this is mundane. Last time I checked there are no awards for moms potty training their children. Yet it is an incredibly important skill. Without it, the world would be a stinky mess! The day arrives and you start the process of training. There is poop, pee, laundry, tears and laughter. Asking every 2 min, “Do you have to go potty?” Sitting on the potty with no results? Finally, it happens your kid goes poop in the potty. Your mundane process has yield a result that every mother agrees is one of the hardest earned rewards. Mundane become extraordinary. During the mundane process of potty training my kids it was not fun. It was downright gross! But now I look back and laugh, those moments are priceless. I am glad I was present for them.

Moments such as these fill my memories. I can say that early motherhood was a joyful time and my children had a happy childhood.

“When I fulfill the daily will of God I will not miss the specific will of God.”

What tasks in your life are mundane. What do you have to do every day? Make a list! Take a moment to reflect on how those mundane tasks lead to significant forward progress. Those commonplace tasks might be laying the foundation for something extraordinary. In the future when my kids are walking in the greatest moment of their destiny, I am going to remind them that I potty trained them. Without me, they would still be in diapers!

Finishing is Possible

God finishes things, and so can I. If you're like me, you always have a to-do list. I've used the Reminder app on my phone. I've used apps such as Evernote and Asana, and in the end, I seem to go back to an old pen and paper format. Keeping a list nearby is a must and adding to it as I remember what I need to do. Each week, I regroup. I move items forward onto a new clean list, and some items I've been moving forward for almost a year. I get satisfaction from crossing items off my list. For every item I cross off, I swear five more new ones hit the list.

I'm always driven to try and finish this list. I've finally realized it just ain't going to happen. One day when I was overwhelmed, God spoke to me and said, "Paige, I finish things. Why can't you?" Boom! It hit me. I began to meditate on this idea. God finished creation. At some point in the process, over the course of six days of creation, he said, "This'll do. I'm done." I don't know, maybe he had more he wanted to create. Different creatures, different plants, but he was done. He stopped, and he rested. God doesn't ask me to do anything he hasn't shown me how to do. God's not asking me to work endlessly and tirelessly without resting.

“Finished Last” will always be better than...
”Did Not Finish” which always trumps...
”Did Not Start”

God wants me to enjoy the satisfaction of completion. He wants us to experience fulfillment in finishing. Yes, there are many processes in life that will never end. In my house, it's going to be laundry. Well, unless we join a nudist colony. Things like meal planning, shopping, and prep, they're going to be ongoing in life, but seasons come and go. Seasons have starts and finishes. Think about the natural seasons. Trees are not in a constant state of blooming, nor are they in a constant season of bearing fruit. There's a season of rest. There's a season of restoration. 

We fail to achieve and complete what God has called us to because we keep adding. Things are never good enough. We keep pursuing perfection, not completion. For God, completion and perfection are the same thing. Think about raising kids. Technically in the eyes of the law, at the age of 18, my job as a mom is finished. I'll still have things that I need to do to help my adult kids.  However, my job of raising my kids will be complete and a new season will begin. It certainly won't be perfect, but it will be complete. I will have to stop and rest in the fact that I did the very best job I could.

After you start a new task, a new calling or a new passion for God, there will come a time when it's done. It may not be perfect, it may not have been everything you wanted it to be. You may or may not have accomplished all that you desired to do, but when a season of completion comes, it's time for us to stop and to rest. Maybe someone else is going to come after you, pick up the unfinished task and take it to the next level. You can reach completion. You can reach a point where you can rest and say, "God, I did my best. I did all that you asked me to do." You can enter into rest knowing that his grace is sufficient.