Drudgery

I work in an Emergency Room where everything has to always be ready at anytime.

To allow me to do my job well, there is another somewhat thankless and tedious job that must also be done well. It is the job of the stocker. On a daily, if not twice a day basis, one person, usually the tech has to go around to each drawer in each cart in each room, and re-stock.

It is a boring job. It is a routine job. It is easy to put it off. It is easy to ignore because on most days, nobody asks for that one particular item in that drawer.

But on any given day, at any given time, a child will be carried in the ER by his parents, and will need my immediate attention. And for that one child, I will need that one instrument, in that one drawer in that one cart.

If the tech has done the job faithfully on the slow days, I will have no problem at all. But if the tech has been lazy, or forgetful, or anything less than diligent, then I’m in trouble.  Or if on the slow days, the tech figured the job wasn’t important enough to do, well, I’m still in trouble.

We live in a common world with common jobs and common days, yet we look for the marvelous and the extraordinary at every turn. When we don’t see the mountain peaks, we nurse a grudge against a God whom we accuse of having forgotten us.

Oswald Chambers says it this way: “Drudgery is the touchstone of character. The great hindrance in spiritual life is that we will look for big things to do. Jesus took a towel…and began to wash the disciples’ feet.  There are times when there is no illumination and no thrill, but just the daily routine, the common task.  Routine is God’s way of saving us between our times on inspiration. Do not expect God always to give you His thrilling minutes, but learn to live in the domain of drudgery by the power of God.”

I’ve been a little on the drudgery end of the spectrum lately. I go to work, run, prepare bible studies, write what sometimes sound like boring blogs to me, and look up wondering when the next peak will show up.

Faithfulness is measured not during times of inspiration, but in the valleys, when no one is watching. Character grows when the tiniest detail of my simple life is done with a firm belief in a God who is engineering every aspect of my circumstances even on those slow and boring days.

My favorite stocker is a small quiet woman who has worked in the ER for decades, it seems. Many don’t know her name. She never complains, even when she does not feel well. She is quick to smile. She is patient.  And when she has a day off, everyone can tell.  The parents may not know she exists, but without her diligent faithfulness, I’d be lost.

That’s the kind of life I want to pursue. So when that dying child shows up –and believe me he will – I want to be ready.

Are you going through a time of drudgery? Pick up the towel and begin washing feet. You may not see it now, but it is your character that is growing into Christ-likeness. The mountain peak will come. Be ready for it.

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