February 2026
The fine line between being a creature of habit and a seeker of novelty can be a hard one to draw. I function best in routines and schedules. I appreciate that God is a God of order, and I also like to have order in my life.
Yet, oh the tediousness of tedium,
and it feels like I have had a lot of it in my life lately. As Tish Harrison Warren puts it in Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life, “I need rituals that encourage me to embrace what is repetitive, ancient, and quiet. But what I crave is novelty and stimulation.”
A new semester has recently begun, and in preparation for it, there were syllabi to tweak, schedules to update, and routine planning to manage. I love having big conversations with my students; I love talking about books and culture; I love reading their ideas conveyed onto paper. I do not love ensuring I have properly updated my schedule and due dates.
Tedium is just as prevalent at home. There is a dinner to be cooked every evening, a homework assignment to sign off on, a surface to be organized and cleaned.
Really there is no long-standing relationship or enterprise that can avoid habitual tasks or rituals and some degree of tediousness. Shakespeare wrote, “Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale, vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man.”
Being human is, for most of us, a routine enterprise.
This makes it all the more amazing that Christ became flesh and dwelt among us. He lived an ordinary life until he was 30 years old before starting his ministry and finally shaking things up. As a carpenter, how many nails did Jesus hammer; how many rough-hewn boards did he sand? As a human being, how many ordinary meals did he eat and how many quiet evenings did he spend with his family doing nothing in particular?
This time of year, I can feel especially antsy. The nights are still long, and the weather is often not conducive for being outside extensively. Yet unlike November and December, there is not a major holiday to anticipate. I know it’s important for our family to be home together, decompressing after school and work, but being home when nothing is happening can sometimes be…tedious. When I wrote The Working Homemaker, I said, “Sometimes it is hard to be home, agenda-less with our kids” (58). A few years later, I still confirm the sentiment.
I find comfort in thinking about Jesus entering in with us not only in our unexpected tragedies and exuberant surprises but in our ordinary moments, as one who experienced not only our sorrows but the spectrum of human experiences. I came across a painting recently by Antonio Fillol Granell called “Los Amigos de Jesus” which I found to be poignant in its depiction that Jesus is not dismayed if our lives are not comprised of daring feats but are instead woven with small episodes of faithfulness.
In the painting, Jesus stands in the doorway as the men prepare their nets for a day of fishing and as a mother sews. The children, in a state of undress and casual comfort within their simple home, entertain themselves while an elderly relative sits quietly.
What might an ordinary night look like in your home? At mine, one child might be reading or doing homework while another doodles or plays. My son is probably bouncing something, and Ben and I could be doing any number of things. I would likely be in the kitchen but also could be sitting down to play something on the piano or maybe just roaming the house looking for messes to straighten, items to ready for the next day’s use.
To return to Tish Harrison Warren, “God made us to spend our days in rest, work, and play, taking care of our bodies, our families, our neighborhoods, our homes. What if all these boring parts matter to God? What if days passed in ways that feel small and insignificant to us are weighty with meaning and part of the abundant life God has for us?”
Those mundane tasks I recently completed in my office in preparation for new classes are the backbone of a good semester. Wiping down the kitchen counters for the umpteenth time and stopping to listen to my child’s story aligns with the heartbeat of our home. I don’t have to wonder, “What would Jesus see if he stood in my doorway?” The Comforter is with us right now, seeing and taking notice.
“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth” (John 14: 16-17a.)
When He sees us being good stewards in our tedious and ordinary moments, He is pleased.
Yet even tedium doesn’t last indefinitely. There are busy nights coming. For us, sports and dance season will soon start, and events will creep onto the calendar. Even as ordinariness is part of life, so too is the ebb and flow of busy and latent seasons. Just as certain animals hibernate in the winter to engage the rest of the year with stamina, so too can our slow or dull moments be a means of fortifying ourselves for times to come in which we may be more harried.
I have also been recently reminded that the ordinary can still be enjoyable and even spiced up a bit if I make conscientious decisions to make the most of it. At work, I have tweaked assignments based on student feedback. At home, I’ve been reading good books in the evening rather than scrolling on my phone. I’ve also been trying out some new recipes, though in full disclosure, this was originally spurred but utter boredom with cooking yet another meal and drawing from my current menu.
If I seem to be contradicting myself, perhaps what I’m trying to say is that it’s a bit of both. We can make purposeful decisions to make the routine and the mundane meaningful. But we can also breathe easily, knowing that even after the tweaks and the additions, ordinariness may remain, not as a sign of failure but as a sign of our being human.
In fact, doing a small life well is simultaneously commonplace and remarkable. G. K. Chesterton said, “The most extraordinary thing in the world is an ordinary man and an ordinary woman and their ordinary children.” So, let’s do the tedious and the ordinary faithfully. It may just end up being the most important thing we do.
<a href=”https://stockcake.com/i/bear-winter-nap_692733_1148812″>Bear Winter Nap</a> by <a href=”https://stockcake.com”>StockCake</a>
<a href=”https://stockcake.com/i/morning-kitchen-shadows_1683314_1229421″>Morning Kitchen Shadows</a> by <a href=”https://stockcake.com”>StockCake</a>
<a href=”https://stockcake.com/i/cozy-movie-night_1225563_964784″>Cozy movie night</a> by <a href=”https://stockcake.com”>StockCake</a>