When you read a biography you read overviews of significant
stages in the described person’s life. Their substance is of such that often
makes the reader wonder, why is his life not as exciting, as interesting, as
productive as the life of the person he is reading about. We forget about what
happens between the chapters – the
everyday mundane. The raw truth is that life is not a biography. The unfair
thing is that too often we place “biography” expectations of our own life and
also of the lives of others. In our fast paced time and age, this expectation
is continually increasing in its intensity. This trend only leads to
frustration and disappointment. Most importantly, it hinders us from trusting
and following God in the mundane.
Coming back from Bible College, I knew that it would be
hard. It would be hard to settle down in one place for more than three months,
to not have someone to pray with at any given moment, to not have an intensive
bible class almost every day, to not have a place to easily run away from
people, to not have given opportunities to serve and to minister, to not have
countless opportunities for the Lord to speak something new into my life…I knew
it would be hard because I knew that others (and subconsciously myself) had
expectations of me – for me to know what is next and for that “something next”
to be soon. This expectation in of itself hinders a believer in fully trusting
his Lord. Expecting God to be faithful, according to His good promises, is
trusting Him. Expectations of how and when He will be faithful undercut our
trust. One may think, this issue has been addressed enough, but our pride does
not put it to rest. Yes, it is our pride. This pride is revealed in our fear of
not knowing the answers and not having evident progress. We want to say that we
know what will be in the next chapter of our life. We want to be able to say
that we started it.
Life is not a biography. It is mainly what happens between
the chapters. The everyday mundane is not something you put in a book, but it
is a substantial part of your life. Now you can live in expectancy of the
“chapters”, or you can choose to enjoy the present “between the chapters”. The
days, the months, the years in between are not worthless or unnecessary. They
are a part of the Lord’s planned life for us as much as the “chapters” are a
part of it.
The Gospels are biographies like no other. Now I am not
comparing our life with the life of Jesus, though I do believe that He also
experienced the every day mundane and He lived those days to the fullest. The
disciples are also portrayed in the Gospels. We see the highlights of their
life as followers of Jesus Christ. They actually walked and talked with the Blessed
Son of God, but not every day did He tell them something new, or created a
miracle before their eyes. Yet, every day they saw Him, they ate with Him, and
they walked with Him. This was the
disciple’s mundane – Jesus was with them and they were with Jesus. They
trusted Jesus to be there for them, to feed and provide for them. Did they
trust Him all the time? The Gospels record the multiple times they lacked in
their faith. In the midst of the garden of Gethsemane and the lacking of faith,
in the midst of walking on water with Jesus and failing in casting out a demon,
in the midst of days of miracles and days of rest…Jesus was with the disciples
and they were with Jesus.
The next time you find yourself pressured or pressuring
yourself to “know the answers”, remember that what matters is that you are with
Christ. Today is not about knowing what is tomorrow, but about knowing Jesus
Christ and being with Him. The appropriate question is not “what are you
doing/going to do”, but “what is the Lord doing today”. This is what it means
to be a disciple of Jesus; it is to be about His business, doing with Him what
He is doing. He is moving, doing and creating something constantly. There is
always (and everywhere) something to join our Lord in. Ultimately, the
disciple’s mundane is no longer mundane, for his days are with and for Jesus.
