Boring routines

https://odb.org/MY/2023/05/24/blessed-routine

As humans, we can not avoid getting into a routine. We wake up, pray, do our morning devotion, take a bath, get ready for work, go for breakfast, and then off we go to work. In our daily commute, it’s either that bus or train ride or in Malaysia the usual drive and rush hour traffic. Like for me, every morning, I face the same congestion just a km away from my condo. At least 5 mins to clear before we enter into the LDP highway, and then it’s about 7-10 mins more to the parking lot of my office. Then, it’s work, emails, and documents to review before we break for lunch until we come back in the afternoon. Maybe an MS Teams meeting or two before we are back on the road to go home. Later, it is dinner, and maybe we watch a bit of Netflix or Youtube or catch up on some other work before we go to sleep to prepare for the next day. Weekends, it’s more relaxed back home at our house in the smaller city with household chores to do, and Sundays are just packed with churchwork before we return to our city condo for the next work week. Every 6 months or so, we try to break the routine with a vacation, or we chill if there is a bank holiday (what we call a public holiday in Malaysia). In every work week and weekend, we try to incorporate some exercise by walking or hiking as much as possible.

Is our routine boring? It can be as it is repetitive. Even if we are retired, we will fall back on a regular daily routine. So some complain about our daily routine as boring. Is there a meaning to this life? Is all this meaningless as Solomon asked before in Ecclesiastes 2? We are made to eat to survive, and for modern humans, that just means work in order to have money to put food on the table and meet our other needs.

If we find our daily routine boring and meaningless, what is it that we want? Live a life that is devoid of any routine? Wake up as we please, sleep as we please. Spend one whole day playing video games, one whole day shopping, and another day hiking up the hills? Is that our goal in life? To break free from these self-imposed daily routines?

For me, I’m good with boring daily routines because I’m able to break them during weekends with my service to God. I also have a daily routine writing morning devotional commentaries. In fact, I start my day with God’s word, and it refreshes and gives meaning and purpose to my daily routine. I know my life is fulfilling God’s calling for me for this season of my life. I know that I’m living out His plans and purposes for my life. Yet I have my own dreams and vision of what I like to do once this phase of my working life is over. Perhaps be more involved in missions and helping out the work of God in other places. Perhaps travel a little more without limitations on annual leave, just that when we are not working, we will have less money. But when we have more money because of work, our time is tied down. That’s life!

If we read Ecclesiastes 2, the conclusion is that everything is meaningless unless we have God in our hearts. God has put eternity in our hearts, and thus, if we have an eternal plan, our boring daily routine becomes meaningful as it is part of our fulfilment of what God wants for us. All that we work for and toiled will be left for someone else to enjoy (Ecclesiastes 2:18, 21). Actually it is OK if those who will enjoy the fruits of our labour are our loved ones and their loved ones. That’s the reason we have family. But it is always better if we work hard and toil in parallel for things eternal and to store riches in heaven, as those things we will get to enjoy when one day we live our eternal life with Jesus and God.