When I was ten my mother put me in piano lessons. For the first week I was glued to the piano and would not quit practicing, but as time wore on, I was tired of putting in the work. I would put off practicing until an hour before my lesson and then cram. I did well for my lessons and I made my piano teacher think that I was doing well when I was actually stuck in a cycle of cramming and forgetting. I didn’t actually learn anything throughout the year that I was in lessons and when I had graduated out of the elementary book and put into more complex songs my incompetence showed. The same thing happens with the mundane. The ordinary everyday routines that we go through prepare us for something greater. What we are doing in the times of preparation and the choices that we make mold us into who we are when times get tough. I was not practicing piano consistently and because it was not a part of my every day routine, I was not being prepared well for harder things. God uses the mundane to prepare us for greater things. Jesus told the parable of the talents to illustrate this very point. Long story short, the point of it was that those faithful in the little can be entrusted with greater things. If God can trust us with little things in the everyday ordinary, then we can be faithful in more, and so the mundane is a training spot in order to be launched into greater things. The choices that we make in the ordinary will prepare us for the extraordinary that God has planned for us.
The adventure presented by God is in no way instantaneous, but is a continuous process of the transformation of the mind. Proverbs 6:21-23 says, “Bind them on your heart always; tie them around your neck. When you walk, they will lead you; when you lie down, they will watch over you; and when you awake, they will talk with you. For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life” (ESV). This verse speaks of the importance of keeping scripture close to your heart, and the Jewish people took this literally and wore scripture around their necks and had it close to them. This is something that we don’t do enough of. In every moment we should have his words and his promises before us. It should be guiding our steps and reminding us of him in the hard times and the ordinary ones. This act reoriented the minds of the Israelites towards God and set him up at lord of their lives.