Phil: "What would you do if you were stuck in one place and every day was exactly the same and nothing that you did mattered?"
Ralph: "That about sums it up for me."
Ever feel like Bill Murray’s character in the 1993 classic “Groundhog Day” where you keep waking up and repeating the same day over and over? Lately we’ve been stuck in the cycle of the same routines, the same schedules, and the same every-two-week-frequency of our toddler getting sick, only to get one of us sick soon after.
Sometimes the burden of the day to day is just hard. It’s ok to feel that and admit that. God acknowledges it, too.
We can trace it all the way back to the fall in Genesis, when man’s work became a burden as part of God’s curse in response to our sin:
Genesis 3:17 “…cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life.”
As the author of Ecclesiastes laments:
Ecclesiastes 1:8-9
All things are full of weariness;
a man cannot utter it;
the eye is not satisfied with seeing,
nor the ear filled with hearing.
What has been is what will be,
and what has been done is what will be done,
and there is nothing new under the sun.
If God was not sovereign over the mundane toil of daily life, would he include such passages in scripture?
So what is our response? As last week’s blog by Ilana highlighted, sometimes we need to learn (over and over again) to rest in Jesus. In addition our own personal time with God, we need to recognize that we are not meant to walk this Christian life alone or in isolation, but rather in community. Letting others in to the mundane of your life and getting into the details of theirs is where some of the most meaningful blessings and encouragements can come -- and it’s the best remedy for feeling less like you’re stuck in Groundhog Day and more like his mercies are new every morning (Lamentations 3:23). Just this month I’ve seen it play out in my own life. After talking with a friend about how we’re trying to decide when to transition our toddler from a crib to a bed in light of our second child arriving in the next few weeks, she brought over her spare crib, giving us unexpected flexibility - a rare blessing as parents!
One specific way we can have more encounters like these: engaging in a small group Bible study. If you’re already a part of one, take some time to think through how you can be even more vulnerable and involved with the members of your group. If you aren’t a part of one, Willowdale’s womens groups just ramped up again and it is a great time to join. I attend a Thursday evening group and am already seeing some needed spiritual refinement through our study, Breathing Room.
Whatever type of group you may find, I challenge you to commit to it wholeheartedly and be a part of the work God is doing in the lives around you as you are also blessed through it.