The Mundanity of Excellence

Commit everything you do to the LORD. Trust him, and he will help you.
Psalm 37:5

A few Saturdays ago I watched the US Olympic Marathon trials on NBC. While some of you may think that watching a group of people run for two hours sounds boring, to someone like me it's an unfolding drama at the highest level of entertainment. So many dreams of becoming an Olympian on that starting line. 

And my goodness, this was an entertaining year. The men's race was all about the story of two training buddies who were former teammates from Brigham Young University. They left everyone else behind in the final few miles, crossing the finish line together and earning a shared trip to Paris this summer. How do two friends both become better than every other marathoner in the nation? Amazing. But what really caught me was when one of them was interviewed with his family a week later. Clayton Young and his wife and toddler sat down to talk about what it means to achieve such a goal, and the effort it took to arrive there. 

Clayton's wife joked about their shared routines as a family, especially regarding Clayton's eating and his training clothes. "It was honestly a lot of dishes washed, a lot of miles run, a lot of laundry. A lot of little things that just add up. Clayton calls it 'the mundanity of excellence.' There are so many things about being good at something that are just, really mundane and boring and repetitive. But it all adds up to something."

I find the phrase "mundanity of excellence" to be so interesting. The concept is true on many levels, not just about greatness, and not just about sports. If we truly desire to move toward a central purpose in our lives, then everything we do-- even the little stuff-- should nudge us toward that ultimate purpose. And that process will always include the mundane. 

If our goal in life is to experience and express the fullness of life with God as the most faithful disciples we can be, I'm convinced there's a lot of mundanity to it. Everyone desires the rapturous moments with God, but learning to daily declutter our lives so that we can hear God's voice? That's a task that takes a lot of repetition. We all want deep relationships, but sharing enough minutes or coffees with another person to truly get to a soul friendship level? That takes time. Developing a character that is full of grace and love is developed not with big public demonstrations, but with daily gentle moments with your toddler, spouse, coworkers, parents. 

You don't become more like Jesus because of a wonderful church service. You become more like Jesus by taking your mundane moments every week, and inviting the Spirit to transform them into holy moments. You'll spend about 24 hours this year brushing our teeth (I hope). That's a lot of time! What if brushing your teeth became an opportunity to pray for someone? Or to practice gratitude to God for another day? It would move us just a little toward that beautiful purpose. The Mundanity of Discipleship. 

For Jesus people, discipleship isn't simply a big decision to follow Jesus. It's learning to make every moment of our lives an expression of that commitment. It's what Eugene Peterson famously described as a long obedience in the same direction. All moving us toward the goal of having the character of Christ formed deeply in us, for the sake of the world. 

Oswald Chambers summarized it well when he wrote, “The test of a man’s [and woman's] religious life and character is not what he does in the exceptional moments of life, but what he does in the ordinary times, when there is nothing tremendous or exciting on.”

What feels mundane today? How might you see it as an opportunity to help you get a little closer to the ultimate goal of becoming like Jesus? 

Jesus, teach me in the slow and seemingly insignificant moments, how to move toward you. 

Peace,
Keith

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