The Mundane Among the Miraculous

Have you ever felt like you are stuck in a rut? It just feels like the same thing day after day. The mundane makes one miserable.

What is challenging as a follower of Jesus is that I try to read the Bible every single day. And as I study, I learn of people walking on water, defeating giants, surviving fiery furnaces, and experiencing great moments of deliverance.

I leave the stories of the miraculous within the pages of Scripture feeling invigorated only to return to my neverending task of reducing my email inbox.

What’s wrong with me? What am I missing? Why doesn’t my life look like the pages of Scripture?

As I studied through the Book of Daniel recently, I was mesmerized yet again by Daniel and his companions. I watched these young men of God be trafficked into a pagan culture and turn it upside down with the knowledge of the one true God. Lions, furnaces, and dreams (oh my)! You see why the opening chapters cement these four guys into the hall of fame.

But that’s just it. It’s only a few events. They are remarkable, but they are very few and far between.

Take the life of Daniel specifically. Within the narrative that focuses on him, we see five miraculous moments:

  1. He refuses to eat from the king’s table and grows stronger (Daniel 1).
  2. He interprets the king’s dream and is promoted (Daniel 2).
  3. He interprets another dream and is honored (Daniel 4).
  4. He interprets the writing on the wall and is promoted by another king (Daniel 5).
  5. He is thrown into the lion’s den and miraculously survives (Daniel 6).

The rest of the book is about some of his crazy dreams and his need for an angel for him to help process them.

While those 5 events are miraculous, have you ever realized that they are over the span of 70 years? He comes as a teenager and is thrown in the lion’s den around his 80s. Yes, he lived through some unbelievable moments, but it only represents a fraction of his life.

What happened during the rest of his life? We don’t know, but apparently, it wasn’t exciting enough to write it down. It might have even been boring. Quite possibly, even Daniel had mundane moments.

Daniel experienced 5 miraculous moments and endured through millions of mundane ones in between.

And so do we. While I haven’t been thrown into a lion’s den (yet), I have seen God do some amazing things. I have 5 remarkable events in my life and then some.

When I remember them, sometimes I forget how awe-inspiring they were. They increased my faith. I left with no doubt of my God’s power.

But that was then. And this is…Thursday.

I read the Bible this morning before sunrise. I prayed. I stretched to get moving. I walked the dog in the cold. I put on the next set of clothes in my closet. I ate breakfast. I enjoyed talking with my family. I kissed my wife. I hugged my children. I drove my commute. I listened to the same podcasts. I walked into an office with an inbox full even though I cleaned it out yesterday.

Mundane. Normal. Expected.

But would I be ready if God broke in and did something not scheduled on my calendar? Could he call me to do something that isn’t on my to-do list?

I believe that God prepares for the miraculous moments through devotion during the mundane moments.

I think God called on Daniel to do all those things because he had been preparing every day as he prayed on his knees, studied the Scriptures, and attempted to make his city better.

When God called, he was ready even if he wasn’t alerted.

I don’t think Daniel is alone.

  • For all those who want a return to the church depicted in the Book of Acts, did you ever realize that the greatest moments recorded in early church history all happened during the span of over 30 years?
  • Did you realize that Simeon stayed in the temple day and night hoping to see the Messiah and the routine that happened every day until, on one of his final days, he finally saw the child Jesus?
  • While every moment with Jesus was noteworthy (John 21:25), have you ever considered that we only know of a handful of events from his 33-year life?

If today feels mundane, that’s OK. The miraculous has happened in the past, and maybe it will again. Those events fuel us for the routine.

Be careful that you don’t idolize Daniel and icons like him to think that every day felt like something that should be recorded in the Bible.

Some days did, but a lot of them didn’t.

So what do you do if today feels mundane? You keep your head down, do the things you need to do, stay faithful to your God, and be ready if he calls your number up for something out of the ordinary.

And if today remains mundane, just be grateful that the miraculous One walks beside you even on days like these.