Godliness in the Mundane

To be honest, most days it feels like my husband and I are just trying to survive. I'm trying to take care of my daughter (some days I can't even do that), figure out what we will eat for supper, do a load of laundry, and keep the clutter to a minimum until either I have less pain, my husband gets a better job (that doesn't involve getting home at midnight and going back to work at 7am like he does some days), or I am called home to be with the Lord. The reality is there's not a whole lot of fun in our life. It doesn't even feel like there's very much normal in our life...whatever that is anyway.

This week I was reminded that even in the mundane and suffering we should not just be "existing" trying to live life. We should be striving for two things every day: holiness and godliness.

"But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness....Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these [new heavens and a new earth (verse 13)], be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace." 1 Peter 3:10-11,14

Jesus is coming back and when he does don't you want to be found pursuing godliness and peace on the "fun" days and the mundane days, on the hard days (even if that's every day) and good days? I do! But man, it is H-A-R-D, isn't it?! I mean, some days I am just trying to occupy my 2 year old while not flaring up my pain that I don't think as much as I should about the fact that one day the heavens are going to be set on fire and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn (verse 12)! This world and all the stuff that consumes us right now is going to be gone, and in light of that I must keep my focus on Jesus and trying to become more like Him every second of the day, whether I am laying on the couch in pain or cleaning up my dog's accident on the dining room carpet (again).


"It becomes us to spend this life only as a journey toward heaven...to which we should subordinate all other concerns of life. Why should we labor for or set our hearts or anything else, but that which is our proper end and true happiness?" a quote from Puritan preacher, Jonathan Edwards, in Randy Alcorn's Heaven

So if tomorrow you wake up and life is hard like it has been the last 30 years or if you wake to new and exciting things, pursue holiness. Focus on the things of God and He, not your circumstances will bring you peace.