Over the weekend we had what was supposed to be a hurricane watch for Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Thankfully it was downgraded to a storm watch by Friday evening, and the Lord protected us further by causing almost all of the storm to pass us by. We ended up having sunshine for most of the day!
While I am very grateful for Gods protection and provision, Saturday in a way was frustrating for me. This is because I spent most of that day (and Friday) at home. Staying at home isn’t a sin of course, but it brought frustration because my normal activities were put on hold.
The bottom line is I like being busy. God created me as someone who enjoys having a day filled with activities, and a long to-do list. This isn’t a bad thing (in fact God is glorified in it), however at times He chooses to give me a boring day instead of a busy day.
Now truthfully a “boring day” is actually quite busy. But its spent on day to day work and the more mental side of ministry instead of the exciting activities.
- Things like organizing the house, and catching up on laundry
- Listening to sermons
- Working on my writing
- Doing future sermon prep
- Spending time in prayer
- Finishing a good book
- Editing the outline for my future college class
- and doing online research
The problem is these activities while important, are not “exciting”
Its far too easy to focus on the “exciting work” of ministry like visitation, bible studies, prison ministry, and outreach and try to fill all of your day with things like this. But the exciting work is only done when what I call the “boring work”
(by the way, Satan just tells us it is boring, done properly it’s incredibly exciting) has already been completed. The quiet work of Bible study, planning, and research fuels the public ministries.
God realizes that though our hearts hunger for the busy days filled with ministry, its the boring days spent in study that draw us closer to Him. So in love He graciously forces us to spend more time in the hard mental work.
I realize that many of you have been experiencing lockdowns and quarantines during the pandemic. In the earlier days of March and April most people spent up to five weeks at home. That can mean a lot of boring days!
Let me encourage you with the truth that God reminded me of on Saturday…the boring days are better than the busy days.
Imagine with me that you’ve completed an incredibly busy day hustling from one activity to the next. At the end you happily collapse into bed and before drifting to sleep ask yourself “what have I done for the Lord today”? If your anything like me, sometimes you have a hard time finding anything concrete you accomplished. Then you ask the more important question “Am I closer to the Lord now than I was this morning”? At the end of many busy days the answer would have to be “no.”
But what about a day focused on prayer, bible reading, and finishing the jobs that you haven’t been getting around to? Though it wasn’t as exciting as the busy day, you are much closer to God.
By Gods grace we have many busy days when we can be actively involved in His work, and we thank Him for that. But at the same time we view the boring rainy days as precious sabbaths that are spent refocusing our heart upon God. It is only when we use the boring days properly that can God truly use our busy days.
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