“What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” — Ecclesiastes 1:9
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NASCAR races last for hours, often requiring drivers to travel 500 or more miles around and around a track in order to win. One lap often looks a lot like the next. Not too long after one pit stop, another is necessary. Drivers speed past some, yet get passed by others.
It’s clear — there’s a lot of repetition in auto racing. But don’t confuse that repetition with a waste of time or a lack of progress and development. It’s precisely in those seemingly mundane moments of a race — on lap 134 and 267 and 382 — that drivers and their teams are setting themselves up to secure a victory.
They’re constantly scrutinizing and refining their racing strategies, learning about how their cars are driving, and avoiding pitfalls along the way, all in the hopes of setting themselves up for success when the checkered flag is waved. Fans may not notice them, but all decisions throughout a long race are vital, because at the end, those long races are usually won by less than a second.
Life can often seem mundane and repetitive as well. We wake up, go to work or school, come home, and get ready to do it all over again the next day. But if you’re experiencing a season of mundanity right now, don’t for a second think your life is being wasted or that God is not at work. God is in the mundane, constantly sanctifying His people, like He promised He would, and forming them into the people He’s called them to be.
Much of the Book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible deals with the mundanity of life, and what’s the conclusion? “Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind” (Ecclesiastes 12:13).
So that random, seemingly unimportant, weekday when you have nothing unique on the schedule and your time is occupied with tasks you’ve done countless times before and the day seems to exist only to get you to the next one, remember a NASCAR race. God is at work in your life just as much on that day as on the most memorable days of your life, all for the purpose of leading you to a crown of righteousness in eternity with Himself. The small decisions you make and actions you take on that day are preparing you for how you will finish the race when the time comes.
As pastor and author Paul David Tripp said, “If God doesn’t rule your mundane, then He doesn’t rule you. Because that’s where you live.”
— Kevin Mercer
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