Are there tasks in your job that you just don’t enjoy doing? Are you biding your time waiting for something better? Do you have days at work that are so routine or even boring to you? Days where you’d rather be anywhere but at work?

Do have days at work that are boring to you?

No matter what job you have, there are parts of it that you probably consider ordinary or drudgery.  We all crave for exciting jobs which align perfectly with our passions.  Truth is, even if you had the perfect job there will be days where you just don’t feel it. So, the challenge is, how do you handle those days and those responsibilities in your job with a positive, upbeat attitude?  What does your character reveal about you during those times? How do you survive the ordinary of your job?

My son is on the 8^th grade junior high football team.  As a receiver, he rotates with other receivers for playing time.  For someone who typically played every down during youth football, this has been an adjustment.  He practices four hours a day and when he plays a game he may or may not have the ball thrown to him or even get that much playing time offensively.  It’s easy to see how frustration or drudgery could set in.  We talked to him about his responsibilities as a receiver, how the coaches pay attention to his attitude, about being a leader even if he’s not playing and always being upbeat and motivated no matter what. Sometimes it’s hard to maintain that attitude through all those hours of practice, to play his best every down in practice and in the game – all while waiting for that pass to come his way.

Do you sometimes feel that way at work? Do you struggle with keeping an upbeat and motivated attitude in the midst of the ordinary tasks at work?  Are you waiting for that big promotion, or big sale or recognition from your boss? If so, think about the principles below:

1. Your actions reveal your character. How you handle the ordinary times of your job reveals a lot about your character. I recently read in My Utmost for His Highest, “The true test of a person’s character is not what he does in the extraordinary moments of life, but what he does during the ordinary times when there is nothing tremendous or exciting happening.
2. If Jesus did menial work, so can you.  “So he got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, and poured water into a basin. Then he began to wash the disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel he had around him.” John 13: 4-5
3. God’s hand is in the ordinary. Oswald Chamber in My Utmost for His Highest wrote “I must realize that my obedience even in the smallest detail of life has all of the omnipotent power of the grace of God behind it. If I will do my duty, not for duty’s sake but because I believe God is engineering my circumstances, then at the very point of my obedience all of the magnificent grace of God is mine through the glorious atonement by the Cross of Christ.
4. Just do it. “So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” 1 Cor 10:31

By the way, that pass my son’s been waiting for was thrown to him in last week’s game – a 40 yard pass for a touchdown!  All that practice and hard work and motivation paid off for just such a time as this. Now back to practice…

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