The Sacredness of the Mundane

Karen Mains said that she once hated housework. “The thing I hated most about it was that it kept me from doing the things I felt I was suppose to be doing. I pointed my finger at it. How could I write, visit lonely friends, make my significant mark upon the world? Knee holes etc. and all these things were interfering with my real goals.”

Most of her change was due, she said, to discovering the sacred quality of mundane tasks. 1 Corinthians 10:30 reminded her that whether she ate or drank (or kept house) she was to do it all to the glory of God. In her home she could create a sacred place in a secular world.

“My mind roams around the world while at the kitchen sink,” she said. “I pray for our children while picking up their toys or doing the laundry. I whisper the names of missionaries while washing the dishes.”

The faithful are willing to do any menial task out of love for the Lord. A minister reported, "Ministerial students come in and say they want an opportunity to serve. I can quickly tell who really has a heart for ministry. I tell them about a music room that needs to be cleaned. They do it and then come back and say, 'Now I want to do some real ministry.'"

Many of us want to be used by God but we're like Lisa who said, "I asked God to let me serve Him, and He must have gotten mixed up because He has me serving people." God gives us opportunities to serve others that He recognizes as faithful service to Him.

Nearly 100 years ago, Kittie Suffield wrote these words in the hymn “Little Is Much When God Is in It.”

“Does the place you’re called to labor

Seem too small and little known?

It is great if God is in it,

And He’ll not forget His own.”

“To the faithful you show yourself faithful” (Psalm 18:25).