An Important Choice

Drudgery.

I've been turning that word over in my head much of late. Perhaps it's the seemingly endless school planning that I know must get done in order to ensure a smooth year. Or maybe it's the warm weather that keeps us inside more often than not. Or the fact that there always seems to be more month than money, and more payees than pennies. Or perhaps it's that our neighbors all seem to be executing HGTV-style landscaping projects and our back yard remains a grass-less dust bowl. Or that I have been so astonishingly exhausted. Or that I miss spending time with my husband, seeing old friends, petting my beagle.

Whatever the reason, my mind is chronically flirting with that word, that feeling that mischievously seeks to weigh down and drown me in... well... me. Self-pity. Selfishness. Sin.

thefreedictionary.com tells us that drudgery means uninteresting work that must get done. Well, I think that nails it pretty well. But who is it that decides a certain tasks interestingness? Ah, that ultimately is the question. For instance, my husband loves to take complex technology apart, piece by piece, and reassemble it because he finds it fun.

I, on the other hand, would prefer a root canal.

I have chosen that particular task as an uninteresting one. He has not.

I could sit for hours and hand quilt a design on a baby blanket. Yet, I am confident in predicting that my husband would find not one iota of pleasure in such torture.

So, I am happy to report that this slow-witted pilgrim has finally figured out what many of you (I am confident) have already learned:

Drudgery is a choice.
I assign any given task the label mundane.

Scripture is not silent on this matter:

“Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.” (Colossians 3:17)

“Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men...” (Colossians 3:23)

When I am working as though the Lord were the recipient, when I am giving thanks through my Savior, can I really consider any task drudgery? If I set to work with a song in my heart, thrilled to be able to serve my King in any way, can any task be mundane? Have I not received so much more than I could ever conceive of offering? Am I not the debtor? Am I not the freed slave?

So diaper changes, piles of laundry, and excel spreadsheets are regarded a little differently in that light. Dishes, baths, and cooking a reason for rejoicing. Disciplining, bills, and husband-less nights an opportunity for humble joy.

I pray to God for a strengthened faith which identifies each and every job done and word spoken as an act of worship. That the word drudgery be forever banished in my interpretation of my redeemed life.