My life has become so routine. I get up at the same time each day. I have the same work schedule. I eat the same breakfast. I am around most of the same people on a daily basis. The older I get, the more I find myself falling into this repetitive schedule without even thinking about it. Some days I feel discouraged and think, how could God ever use me with this ordinary (almost boring) life I lead? How can God work in the routine, the mundane, and the ordinary? Do you ever feel like your life has to be something extravagant for God to be at work?
When I was in college, I had the opportunity to go on many mission trips. It was one of my favorite things to do because I knew I was going to get a front row seat watching God work and move. I knew I was going to see Him throughout the trip and I was always excited to experience Him through new people and places. I traveled to South Korea for a mission trip after I graduated college and I remember being taken aback by all the beautiful people I had the opportunity to meet and the breathtaking views I was able to see. In those moments, God was so obvious to me. He was there and He was working. I could just feel it and see it each day. I felt important because I was confident that God was using me to positively affect the lives of others.
Unfortunately, my life isn't a constant mission trip. I do not have the opportunity to so obviously see God working on a day-to-day basis, but that doesn't mean that He still isn't working through my everyday circumstances. Why is it that as Christians, we feel like we have to be doing something extravagant like a mission trip to experience God or be to used by Him? I refuse to believe the lie that Satan tells us that we can't be used by God in our everyday lives, that we can't affect the lives of those around us unless we are doing something for Christ in an exaggerated way, that He can't work through the small, unnoticed gestures. We get to thinking why would He be interested in a full-time desk job worker like me? Or a stay-at-home mom? Or a someone who is retired? Or a student just trying to graduate? Because He isn't looking for people who are equipped or qualified. He is looking for people who are willing and available. God will provide the knowledge and ability, if we will just provide ourselves.
You don't have to be doing a ministry-oriented activity to see God and to be used by Him. Your life (every aspect of it) is a ministry in itself and a way for God to work through you and touch the lives of others. God will open up doors and create opportunities where there seem to be none. He has the power to turn your ordinary day-to-day circumstances into something extraordinary. It may not look like a foreign mission trip or a pastor preaching from the pulpit, but that doesn't mean He can't transform the routine into something amazing for His glory. God has the power to work beyond our circumstances. So yes, I do feel like my life is a little mundane sometimes, but I have to keep reminding myself that God is still at work in my life. He will always use me as long as I am willing to be used in any (unconventional) way, shape, or form.
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