Unnoticed: When the Necessary Becomes Boring
As human beings, we crave attention. We crave the satisfaction of knowing that someone has seen our job well done. We thrive when someone notices all the great things we're doing.
Sometimes, though, all the things we are called to do seem awfully thankless. It's tedious, sometimes, going to the same job or the same classes or doing the same thing, every single day.
You want honesty? It gets boring and tiring and very much just part of routine. I was in one of those funks recently, as I was at work. At church, we had a Blessing of the Backpacks for the kids. We give them this luggage tag pictured below that said, "I am loved and prayed for by Hixson United Methodist Church. There's a small plastic piece that we attach to the luggage tag so the kids can attach it to their backpacks.
A lot of my job is in the small details. I am the day-to-day paper work, and the one who sets up for Sunday mornings generally.
So I was in that funk of: does what I do really matter? Is me tying all these little plastic pieces
to luggage tags really going to do anything, in the long run?
It was like a broken record of negative thinking. This doesn't matter. This doesn't matter. This doesn't matter. You're wasting your time, you know that, right?
One of my favorite quotes is from Graham Cooke that says: If all your thinking has brought you to a place you don't like, have another thought.
Isn't that so simple? Have another thought.
So, the Holy Spirit gave me one. Instead of complaining, what if you start praying over each tag?
What if you start praying for the kids you see each and every week that will be receiving these?
In that moment, my heart was overwhelmed with His love as I began praying for a different child for each tag that I tied. As the faces of the kids that I see on a weekly basis passed through my mind, I felt such a holy responsibility.
The work that you do is important. When you have the days that you feel your work
or your schooling doesn't matter- or it feels tedious- remember that you're doing incredible things. You are changing atmospheres, placed where you are.
Be encouraged by Isaiah 61:1 (NLT). The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is upon me, for the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted and to proclaim that captives will be released and prisoners will be freed.
Between the Shadow and the Soul: Blogging through the journey.