TODAY’S SCRIPTURE
The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises. Ecclesiastes 1:5
Read: Ecclesiastes 1:5-10
Listen: Ecclesiastes 1
TODAY’S MESSAGE
The sun rises and the sun sets—every day. Water runs into the Grand River, which runs into Lake Michigan, but Lake Michigan never seems to fill up. If you think about it, nature is monotonous. Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall. And then repeat. Our life can seem like this as well. We get up, get dressed, go to work or school, come home, go to bed. People have been living like this for thousands of years.
It’s easy to get into the rut of sameness and not find delight in the variety of that sameness. Raising a small child can feel like you are stuck in a hamster wheel of cooking, cleaning, diapers, “don’t touch that,” “no,” loads of laundry and a lack of adult interaction. Yet, amid the monotony, some moments will be treasured forever. An “I love you” or that time they crawl up into your lap just to cuddle. And there’s that funny phrase they say that will come up even when they are adults. That’s the variety in the sameness God gives us.
We discover some of God’s greatest gifts during the mundane. A beautiful sunset over Lake Michigan. Seeing a printed copy of that presentation you’ve been working on for two months. Listening to the birds chirping on an April morning. These things can’t provide true meaning in life, but God created us to find satisfaction in them. We are to be grateful, enjoy and savor.
IN YOUR CHAIR TIME TODAY
Open your journal and write “Monotony” at the top. Then begin to list some of the elements of your life that you do on a regular basis. After you have a list, try to identify at least one aspect of those things that you can delight in. Thank God for those things.
Download a printable PDF of the BTW week here.
