“No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.”
—Hebrews 12:11
“The essential thing 'in heaven and earth' is that there should be a long obedience in the same direction; there thereby results, and has always resulted in the long run, something which has made life worth living
— Friedrich Nietzsche
THE BATTLE FOR CONSISTENCY
If I’m honest, one of the greatest struggles in my current season of life is consistency. With three young children at home, nothing stays the same for long. Sleep schedules shift. Needs change. Just when you think you’ve found a rhythm it all goes by the wayside.
Maybe you know the feeling. You may not be in the same life stage as I am, but maybe it’s with your workout routine. Every time you start to find your stride, life interrupts. Maybe it’s at work. Another project, another crisis, another pivot. Maybe it’s even in your faith. Good intentions to pray and read, constantly overtaken by the noise of life.
We live in a culture that has baptized us in the explosive. If it isn’t fast, loud, shiny, or extraordinary, it barely registers in our imaginations.
Big launches. Viral moments. Overnight transformations.
We chase spectacle and live addicted to novelty. But the question I am seeking to steep into my heart is this: What if God is far more interested in something quieter?
What if His greatest work in us is not found in the extraordinary, but in the mundane? What if His greatest invitation is not to constant escalation, but to daily faithfulness? What if becoming the person God created you to be looks less like fireworks and more like long, slow obedience in the same direction?
GOD IN THE REPETITION
G.K. Chesterton once wrote:
“A child kicks his legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of life. Because children have abounding vitality, they always say, ‘Do it again!’ And the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, ‘Do it again’ to the sun; and every evening, ‘Do it again’ to the moon... for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.”
You see, God is a God of rhythm. A God of repetition. A God who delights in consistency.
Every morning, He paints the sunrise again. Every night, He brings out the stars. Every season, He whispers to the trees to bloom, to shed, to rest, to awaken.
Creation itself bears the fingerprints of a God who loves repetition. So why do I so often feel that my spiritual life should be different?
FORMATION HAPPENS IN THE MUNDANE
The reality is most of what God will do in your life will not come in explosive, visible moments. You know this. You’ve heard this. But you likely need to be reminded.
God’s hand in your life will most often come through unseen daily obedience.
The way you quietly choose to show up. The way you pray when you don’t feel like it. The way you love when it’s inconvenient. The way you honor your promises when no one can see. The way you steward small things with care.
God’s curriculum for forming you into Christlikeness isn’t a weekend conference or a viral moment of inspiration. Those may play a small role. But it’s the long, slow work of daily faithfulness that is most formative.
You cannot microwave maturity. You cannot shortcut sanctification. You cannot fast-track fruitfulness.
The fruit of righteousness and peace that Hebrews 12:11 talks about does not come from a flash of inspiration. It comes from being trained by discipline over a period of time.
The men and women we admire most, the ones whose faith seems to have a gravitational pull, whose presence feels like refuge, whose lives whisper of heaven…they were not made in a moment.
They were shaped by thousands of unseen, faithful days. One prayer. One act of service. One small surrender at a time. Stacked up daily to bring forth a faithful life.
MONOTONY AND MAJESTY
The world tells you that monotony is a waste. That if life feels repetitive, it’s because you’re stuck.
But the kingdom of God tells a different story. In God’s economy, repetition is how things take root.
When you pray the same prayer again, heaven hears. When you serve the same family again, eternity notices. When you repent again, grace flows.
So my friend, if you find yourself in a season of life that feels like you are running on a treadmill. All movement, but seemingly no progress, my encouragement to you is this: you are not stuck.
You are being formed.
You are not wasting your life.
You are watering seeds that will one day bloom.
God is in the boring. God is in the ordinary. God is in the moments no one sees. And make no mistake, He is building something sacred in you through it. A character that can sustain His plans for your life as you glorify him daily.
THE HIDDEN HARVEST
Scripture is filled with agricultural metaphors because the life of faith is like farming.
You sow. You water. You wait. You trust.
And eventually…in due season…you reap.
But the reaping is always preceded by the monotony of daily tending. Don’t despise the hidden season you are in. Don’t long to break free from obscurity. Don't resent the unseen faithfulness God is asking of you. As we are told in Luke 16:10, those who are found faithful with little will be faithful with much. Cultivate a posture of faithfulness in your heart through the daily monotony. I promise, the harvest of your life will come.
Stay in the field. Tilling the soil. Breaking up the fallow ground. Seeking the Lord.
A FINAL CHARGE
Friends, don’t give up because it feels mundane.
Don't believe the lie that only what is explosive matters. Don't despise the day of small beginnings. Don't curse the slow growth in the hidden places.
Lean into the repetition. Lean into the rhythm. Lean into the slow work of grace.
Be consistent at the things God has put in front of you.
Be steady. Be faithful.
Because though daily repetition of obedience feels tedious, it’s also transformational.
It’s how souls are shaped. It’s how character is forged. It’s how Christ is formed in you.
The life you long for is forged in the ordinary.
One prayer. One step. One yes at a time.
Here to walk the long road with you.
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