It could be one of those days. ou have a long list of jobs to do. There are so many routine tasks to do, that your feel a bit flustered and ragged before the day even gets under way. The duties may be all small, but the sheer number of them is oppressive. Now stop! Suppose for a moment you were not capable of doing any jobs today. Just try to imagine that you are too ill, or too fragile, or somehow physically incapable of doing anything. Today, would you not feel that the most routine busy-ness of previous years would be a delight?
Then take into this busy day the thought that God does not ask most of us to make some great sacrifice, some vast public gesture of spirituality, nor some spectacular religious demonstration, but simple, down-to-earth obedience to his known will. Every task can be an act of grace in an attitude of gratitude. That’s what lifts a busy, trivia-packed day into a sheer pleasure. “I am glad I am able to do it”. “I can, so I will” is the motto.
The willingness to be a servant of the Lord is the transforming spell, which turns the trivial round, the common task into an act of worship. Take your prayers with you into the duties of the day, and find the pleasure of being able to do his will; the busy-ness being a compliment to your efficiency. Psalm 40 v. 5-8:
Many, O Lord my God, are the wonders you have done. The things you planned for us no one can recount to you; were I to speak and tell of them, they would be too many to declare.
Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but my ears you have pierced; burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not require. Then I said, “Here I am, I have come – it is written about me in the scroll. I desire to do your will, O my God, your law is within my heart”.
A Prayer:
Lord, grant me a loving servant heart today, that in the steps of Jesus I seek not to be waited on but to serve, and to give myself to what has to be done joyfully.
P.S. A ‘pierced ear’ was the mark of a slave’s ownership – the world always wants to know, and looks at us asking: “Who owns you?”. How will you answer that question today?