The Fresh Mundane

the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness for forty years, God provided them with fresh manna as food daily. If they kept it overnight until the next day, it would rot (Exodus 16). The principle here is simple: will the people trust God daily for His provision?

Fast forward to the New Testament. Jesus opened the Lord’s prayer with “Give us this day our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11). Of course, this is not the real bread we eat, but the living word of God. Here’s another principle we learn: do we have a fresh word from God daily?

Interestingly, do you notice a similarity between the two passages? While the manna is fresh daily, it is the same manna. Can you imagine eating the same food every single day for forty years? In Singapore, we are spoilt for choice as we have a variety of staples like rice, noodles, bread, etc. In fact, most of us eat different food for the three meals in a day.

While the word of God can be specific for a season, it comes from one source of truth, and that is the Bible. Many of us have read passages and verses more than once. As a matter of fact, many of us have read them in the repetition of double digits. Even in church, we often hear sermons from the pulpit which we have heard countless times.

God is teaching us another principle here: The mundane can be fresh. It is a humdrum conundrum but freshness and mundane can coexist in harmony. We can learn to love and embrace the mundane.

As pastoral leaders, loving and serving people can become mundane.
Serving in our ministries can become mundane.
Doing the same household chores can become mundane.
Life at work can become mundane.
Spending time with your friends or partner can become mundane. Prayer can become mundane.
Worship can become mundane.
Reading the word of God can become mundane.

So how do we find freshness in the mundane? It is not chasing after new things or the latest trends. If it is so, we will soon find ourselves tired, worn out and stuck in a vicious cycle. The answer is simple — we find it in our Provider, God. It was the same manna the children of Israel ate but provided by God. It is the same old Bible, but the written word become spoken words when God reveals himself through it.

Matthew 4:4 (NKJV)
“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”

When we involve God and make room for Him to move, it changes everything:

Bible stories become meaningful; passages become relevant; verses become alive.
Prayer becomes a two-way communication.
Worship becomes more than songs and anthems, but an endless hallelujah.
The humdrum of work takes on a whole new meaning as we have a vision of reaching out.
Loving others become easy as it is no longer a job but a joy.
The plain and dull becomes colourful.
The ordinary becomes extraordinary.
The natural becomes supernatural.
The mundane becomes fresh.

In this world and generation that is all about chasing endlessly after the new, let’s be different and master the fresh mundane.

Find out more about the amazing church I call home: http://www.heartofgodchurch.org/