Having just traveled a few states to work in the summer heat, it was admirable how upbeat the youth were. Their mission trip involved hard work laboring to repair homes and make helpful upgrades.
They spent a lot of time in one house rebuilding part of a damaged wall. Everything from measuring to cutting to patching to painting was involved.
But when they got there the next morning, the wall was broken through again.
An angry, intoxicated individual had decided to smash it in. Chances were, if they fixed it, he’d do it again.
You can probably imagine how they felt.
Although that example is extreme, we live in cycles bound mutually by futility and purpose every day.
Outwardly We are Wasting Away
You wash your clothes, and then you dirty them. You do an honest day’s work, and then you have to do it again. You make money, then you spend it. You eat food, and then you…you know.
All things material in this life are wasting away. Even the stuff that can be used for eternal purposes, like spiritually rich books. Or the money we save up to give away. Even the bodies we work hard to take care of have an end.
We live a cycle of do, undo, do again.
We live a cycle of do, undo, do again. Click To TweetInwardly We are Being Renewed Day by Day
God tells us that those who trust in Him are lifted up on eagle’s wings and made able to walk and not grow weary. He promises to make us new. Every day, God says, He offers renewal to our souls (Lamentations 3:22-23).
The Holy Spirit- the very Spirit of God that has conquered death- is living inside of us. God intends for His Spirit in us to change us. His preoccupation has always been building into eternity, which means building His people on the inside.
Reassessing Our Focus
When we think about it, it’s a little silly how much of our energy, concern, and prayer is wrapped up in what’s wasting away.
We ask God all the time to change “things” and fix “stuff” and heal what is going to die someday. It’s not wrong.
But there’s also value in asking God to change hearts and fix perspectives and heal what lasts for eternity.
I know in my heart, changing this focus in prayer lessens the waste of frustration I have with the material, circumstantial, and ultimately temporal. Remembering God’s everlasting work and that He’s renewing us day by day strengthens me when I get weary of the “do, undo, do again” cycle of life in this world. The stretches my prayers beyond the bounds of what’s immediate.
When our living-cycles have spun round their last, may our prayers reflect a rhythm that resonated into the everlasting!
How does inward renewal and the value of the eternal affect how you deal with futility or weariness? How does this change how you pray?
{A version of this post was previously published here}
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Lately I have been weary of how much of my life is spend replacing what has been consumed—refilling the salt shaker, the paper towel holder, the freezer, the pantry, the refrigerator. But when I think of the Proverbs 31 woman, with no convenience foods, fast food places, clothing stores, Wal-Marts, etc., she spent most of her day on the earthly and the mundane. Yet her heart feared the Lord, and everything she did was infused with His presence. Though I fail so often, that’s how I aspire to be.
Isn’t it wild to think how differently people lived in the past, having fewer conveniences? I struggle with and aspire to this too.
I often remark that if it’s empty, we fill it. If it’s full, it must need to be emptied…
Thanks be to God for giving meaning to the mundane!
So accurate, Michele! Yes, praising Him with you!
Good message, Bethany. We have trouble keeping human buckets full. Because everthing in this life has an expiration date. So this is what’s true in a nutshell: “…there’s also value in asking God to change hearts and fix perspectives and heal what lasts for eternity.”
Love that there ARE things without an expiration date – but so much does have one! Thanks for joining in, Karen!
Bethany, thank you for the reminder to seek the eternal in the mundane. Most days we can feel like ordinary tasks are an effort in futility because they will have to be done again tomorrow. Yet even in the mundane we labor in God’s Presence, and we never know how He will choose to work in our lives or another’s for His eternal purpose as we labor in the mundane things of life.
So true, Donna. I’m so glad he uses the mundane!
I’m sure that was a difficult lesson for the kids to see their hard work destroyed. 🙁 It reminds me once again that we don’t need to put our hope in the outcome of our work, but to be diligent in our relationships each moment, trusting God’s presence with us to make a real difference.
It was so hard for them! You summarize it so well – our hope isn’t in the outcome, but God each moment!
I appreciate this encouragement, Bethany, “There’s value in asking God to change hearts and fix perspectives and heal what lasts for eternity.”
Thanks, Lisa! Glad you joined us this week!
Inwardly we are being renewed. Amen.
Amen. Thanks for joining in, Lauren!
I appreciate this reminder. We are Kingdom women and our value should only be placed in things, activities and relationships with eternal value. I wish I could say I live that way. A preacher I know always says we have to keep the main things the main things. If we keep our hope on the eternal our stress level would decrease and we would gain productivity in Kingdom accomplishments. In the words of Evelyn Christensen, “Lord, Change Me”. Then we can change the world.
Keeping the main things the main things – yes! Thanks for joining in, Calvonia!
I agree, it’s very easy to get caught up in the little, often repetitive, details of life. Your comments about what we pray for remind me of a book I read recently – Pray Big by Alasdair Begg. He looks at the kind of things Paul prayed in Ephesians and encourages us to pray more for eternal things.
Thanks, Lesley! I have that book on my shelf – maybe I’ll get to reading it this year, it sounds good!
Oh, my heart sand thinking of the disappointment the youth must have felt. They must have felt like Solomon in Ecclesiastes. “Futility of futilities! All is futility.” Or a new mother cleaning up the umpteenth spit-up. So much of life consists of the routine. I guess that is why we are to set our minds on things above.
Yes, so much of life is routine. Thank God there are things above to set our minds on. Thanks for joining in this week!
Bethany, there’s a lifetime of wisdom wrapped up in this post! I wish I could download it into my often-impatient daughter’s heart, but instead, I will try to trust that God will work it out in her over time, just as He continues to do with me.
It’s so hard to be patient! (Not my natural gifting by any means anyway!!) So grateful He is patient with us.