The alarm clock.  The kids’ lunch.  Clock in; clock out.  The grocery store.  Study.  Sleep.  Wake up.  Repeat.  These are just a few of the things all of us can identify with in our lives.  Or maybe it’s your career.  Good money, promotions, a close friend or two in the office.  But day in & day out it has become a joyless routine.  It’s what we hope doesn’t define where we are in life; the mundane.  Don’t confuse simplicity with mundane.  There are times when a “simple” day is welcome.  There are times when “simple” conversation is refreshing.  Simplicity can have many positive attributes that mix in with the chaotic world in which we live, but the mundane; that is dangerous territory. 

The dictionary defines the word mundane as “of or pertaining to this world or earth as contrasted with heaven.”  Another definition is “common; ordinary; unimaginative.”  That word, “unimaginative” is a scary word.  I read that & it immediately conjures up images of the hopeless.  Or those that have given up or feel trapped in a season of life they feel offers no escape.  If not careful, we can quickly find ourselves held captive to an unimaginative world where dreams & creativity, that once flooded our minds from morning to night, are no longer alive.

In the movie “The Shawshank Redemption”, Morgan Freeman’s character “Red” has been in prison since his teenage years.  He has watched life pass by while looking at the same landscape day after day.  Bars, walls, guards, dirt, drab concrete are just a few of the things that offer the same view over and over.  And each time Red faces parole, he is denied.  Sure, the occasional change in duties offers a welcome break from his normal day-to-day jobs, but the boundaries are still the same.  People come & go but each day he is told when he can go to the bathroom, when it’s time to eat, when it’s time to work, when it’s time to go to sleep, & when it’s time to wake up & do it all over again.  But then one day he is up for parole, yet again.  He has become quite use to the outcome & prepares himself for the inevitable answer.  But to his surprise, & now in the later years of his life, they grant him parole.  I’ll never forget the scene of the day Red is released.  They give him his personal belongings, he says goodbye to a few of his close friends, and then walks through the open gate to a free world.  But something happens as he stands there taking it all in.  Fear grips him.  He doesn’t know what to do.  He doesn’t know where to go, how to act, or what to say.  Red has not only been a prisoner at Shawshank paying for his crimes.  Red had become a prisoner to the mundane.  His creative thoughts were gone.  His ability to improvise diminished.  He had become ordinary & unimaginative and now felt helpless.

The enemy wants you to become ‘common’.  He would love nothing more than to strip the beautiful, God-given ability of creative thought from each of us.  There are many of you that are walking around lifeless, which we know is contrary to God’s word (…“I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” – John 10:10 NASB).  There was a time you felt that no dream was too big for you to attain.  You had God-given visions that moved you so much you couldn’t sleep at night because your mind raced with ideas.  But something happened on the way to victory.  Circumstances derailed you for a moment.  Maybe you got back up & started moving forward, only to be “denied parole” one more time.  Routine became normal.  The walls looked the same.  Bars began to form, making you a prisoner to the mundane.  It’s time to reclaim those dreams & visions!  There will be a moment when God opens the gates and shows you a whole new world of opportunity.  And WHEN the gates of freedom open for you just as it did for Red, be ready; be prepared; & rejoice in the new opportunities!  If you feel as though you’re just walking in circles; if you feel like you have peaked in life & this boring, sometimes lifeless, routine is all that’s left, it’s time to stake claim to the hopes & dreams God has given you.  Call on the One that is the dream giver.  Reclaim the creative territory that Satan has stolen from you.  The gates are opening…you are no longer a prisoner to the mundane.

©2011 World Wide Worship, LLC
All Rights Reserved