NOVEMBER 3, 2015
The Daily Grind
Read:
Ephesians
6:5-9
Whatever
you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human
masters.— Colossians 3:23
The high school I attended required 4 years of Latin
instruction. I appreciate the value of that discipline now, but back then it
was a grind. Our teacher believed in drill and repetition. “Repetitio est mater
studiorum,” she intoned over us several times a day, which simply means,
“Repetition is the mother of learning.” “Repetitio est absurdum,” we muttered
under our breath. “Repetition is absurd.”
I realize now that most of life is simply that: repetition—a
round of dull, uninspiring, lackluster things we must do again and again.
“Repetition is both as ordinary and necessary as bread,” said Danish
philosopher Søren Kierkegaard. But he went on to say, “It is the bread that
satisfies with benediction.”
Even the smallest tasks are done for God.
It’s a matter of taking up each duty, no matter how mundane,
humble, or trivial, and asking God to bless it and put it to His intended
purposes. In that way we take the drudgeries of life and turn them into holy
work, filled with unseen, eternal consequence.
The poet Gerard Manley Hopkins said, “To lift up the hands in
prayer gives God glory, but a man with a [pitchfork] in his hand, a woman with
a slop pail, give Him glory, too. God is so great that all things give Him
glory if you mean that they should.”
If whatever we do is done for Christ, we’ll be amazed at the joy
and meaning we’ll find in even the most ordinary tasks.
Remind
us today, Lord, that You are in the dull and ordinary tasks of life in a most
extraordinary way. Let us not forget that we do even the smallest tasks for
You.
A willing spirit changes the drudgery
of duty into a labor of love.
INSIGHT:
Historians say that slaves composed about
one-third of the population of Ephesus. In today’s reading Paul teaches
believing slaves and masters how to live in a Christlike way within the
established structures of society. These instructions called for reciprocal
attitudes and applied to both slaves and masters (v. 9). Because of their new
relationship with Christ, believers were accountable to Him as their Master,
and He would judge fairly regardless of one’s social or economic status. Both
slaves and masters were to treat each other with respect, sincerity, justice,
and fairness (vv. 5-9). Sim Kay Tee
Source: Our Daily Bread 2015
