“What do people gain from all their labors”
Ecclesiastes 1:3
While working in Kenya, we could afford a houseworker. Not only could we afford it, it was expected. Mama Fulani faithfully helped me do those daily routines that needed to be done and her work freed me to teach women to be leaders. I never resented her salary and would have paid more if I could. The Teacher who wrote the book of Ecclesiastes supports his claim of the futility, the “vanity of vanities, the meaninglessness of life by pointing out what today we might call the “circles of life.”
Generations come and go v.4,
the sun runs its daily cycle v. 5,
and rivers flow to the sea that is never full v.7.
What’s the point of these cycles that are built into life? Are they meaningless?
My first thought was that these routine, predictable cycles in life create a structure on which we hang our lives. As Tevy says in the opening of Fiddler on the Roof, traditions tell us who we are and what God expects of us. I highly recommend the little book Liturgy of the Ordinary by Tish Harrison Warren. The first chapter talks about the routine of making your bed when you get up in the morning. That routine starts your day with successfully finishing a simple task. You have put something in order.
So how do routines, those backdrops of our lives become rituals, the backdrops for God’s hand supporting our lives? A friend referred me to Psalm 19:1-4
“The heavens declare the glory of God, the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the end of the world.”
We pondered if when a routine is infused with the awareness of God’s presence, it becomes a ritual that draws us to God. Whether we practice Tai Chi with the sunrise or do morning devotions in our favorite chair, we recognize that the sunrise is God saying, “Good morning.” The cycles of life can be meaningless routines we go through each day to deal with life’s challenges or when infused with the awareness that God is with us, they become rituals that change meaninglessness to meaning and purpose.
Pick one of those daily tasks, one of those circles of life, that can speak to you about God’s presence and loving concern. For example, I thought of taking out the trash on Tuesday morning. God wants to get rid of the trash in my life! Thank you, Lord. May that awareness transform meaninglessness and routine into ritual, meaning, blessing.
On the Way to Wonder 