Friday Read: Missing the Sacred in the Mundane

Brother Lawrence spent his life in a monastery kitchen washing dishes, peeling potatoes, and scrubbing pots. His work was repetitive, unglamorous, and seemingly insignificant. Yet he wrote about "practicing the presence of God" in the mundane, discovering that he could commune with Christ as profoundly while scouring cookware as others did in contemplative prayer. He refused to divide life into sacred and secular categories, insisting that every moment offered opportunity for worship.

Modern Christians often make the opposite mistake, assuming that God shows up primarily in designated spiritual activities - church services, Bible studies, mission trips - while our "regular life" is somehow less holy. We wait for dramatic experiences while missing divine appointments in grocery stores and traffic jams. We pray for God's presence while he's been right there all along in the laundry pile and the spreadsheet.

Jesus spent thirty years in obscurity before three years of public ministry. Three decades of ordinary work - carpentry, family dinners, community life - preceded the miracles and sermons. Yet those quiet years weren't wasted; they were preparation. The incarnation itself sanctifies the ordinary - God became flesh and experienced mundane human existence, dignifying everyday life through his participation in it.

The Israelites gathered manna daily in the wilderness - monotonous, repetitive work that many complained about. They wanted something extraordinary, but God provided the ordinary sustenance of daily bread. This pattern continues in the Lord's Prayer: "Give us this day our daily bread" (Matthew 6:11). Not weekly bread or yearly bread - daily. God meets us in the rhythm of ordinary needs and regular provision.

Paul commanded slaves to work "as for the Lord and not for men" (Colossians 3:23), elevating mundane labor to worship. Whether you're changing diapers, entering data, driving a route, or attending meetings, you're on sacred ground when you do it as unto Christ. The location of your worship isn't what makes it holy - the orientation of your heart is.

What mundane tasks are you enduring rather than embracing today? How might your perspective shift if you saw dish-washing, email-answering, and commute-navigating as opportunities to practice God's presence? Brother Lawrence discovered that the dullest duty becomes sacred when performed for an audience of One. Stop waiting for dramatic spiritual experiences and start finding God in the glorious ordinary of everyday faithfulness.