Title
GROWING through the motions 日常涵养成长
Date
05/25/2025
Description
Ecc 1:10: Is there anything of which one can say, “Look! This is something new”?It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time.
传道书 1:10: 人可以指着哪件事说：“看啊，这是新事”？所谓的新事在我们以前早就有了。 (page 1086)
Ec 9:10: Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might
传道书 9:10: 凡你的手能做的，都要尽力去做 (pg 1097)
Col 3:23: Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men
歌罗西书 3:23: 无论做什么事，都要发自内心，像是为主做的，而不是为人做的，(page 1912)
Ecc 5:18: But I realized that there is one good thing for people to do. We should be happy to eat and to drink. And we should enjoy the hard work that we do on the earth. That is what God wants us to do during the short time that he has given us on this earth.
传道书 5:18: 我认为人生最美最善的是，在上帝所赐的短暂岁月中尽情吃喝，享受自己在日光之下劳苦得来的成果。因为这是人当得的。(page 1092)
Mark 11:24: This is the reason I urge you to boldly believe for whatever you ask for in prayer—be convinced that you have received it and it will be yours.
馬 可 福 音 11:24: 所以我告诉你们：在祷告中请求，只要相信你们已经得到它，那么它就会属于你们。 (page 1641)
Isaiah 40:31: But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
以赛亚书 40:31: 但仰望耶和华的人必重新得力。他们必像鹰一样展翅高飞，他们奔跑也不困倦，他们行走也不疲乏。(page 1177)
传道书 1:10: 人可以指着哪件事说：“看啊，这是新事”？所谓的新事在我们以前早就有了。 (page 1086)
Ec 9:10: Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might
传道书 9:10: 凡你的手能做的，都要尽力去做 (pg 1097)
Col 3:23: Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men
歌罗西书 3:23: 无论做什么事，都要发自内心，像是为主做的，而不是为人做的，(page 1912)
Ecc 5:18: But I realized that there is one good thing for people to do. We should be happy to eat and to drink. And we should enjoy the hard work that we do on the earth. That is what God wants us to do during the short time that he has given us on this earth.
传道书 5:18: 我认为人生最美最善的是，在上帝所赐的短暂岁月中尽情吃喝，享受自己在日光之下劳苦得来的成果。因为这是人当得的。(page 1092)
Mark 11:24: This is the reason I urge you to boldly believe for whatever you ask for in prayer—be convinced that you have received it and it will be yours.
馬 可 福 音 11:24: 所以我告诉你们：在祷告中请求，只要相信你们已经得到它，那么它就会属于你们。 (page 1641)
Isaiah 40:31: But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
以赛亚书 40:31: 但仰望耶和华的人必重新得力。他们必像鹰一样展翅高飞，他们奔跑也不困倦，他们行走也不疲乏。(page 1177)
Creator
Pastor: Mike J Koger
Contributor
Hillside United Methodist Church
3739 US 80
Phenix City AL 36870
United States
3739 US 80
Phenix City AL 36870
United States
Transcription
Growing Through the Motions
Ecclesiastes 1:8-10
"When everyday seems the same, it is because we have stopped noticing the good things that appear in our lives." ~ Paulo Coelho
Msg: Find the Joy in the mundane – because this is where most of life occurs.
mun•dane - of, relating to, or characteristic of the world
2 : characterized by the practical, transitory, and ordinary : COMMONPLACE
Find the Joy in the mundane – because this is where most of life occurs.
There is a positive, joyful side to the daily routine - if you look for it
There are daily chores we must do
There are obligations, and there are monthly, weekly and daily duties that fill our days.
But if we just wish all of these things away, (along with all the precious time included,) what do we have left? Not much.
Ec 9:10: Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with (all) your might
Col 3:23: Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men…
Put your life back into your life.
Find the Joy in the mundane – because this is where most of life occurs.
There is a Christian song I love that says, “I don’t want to spend my life going through the motions.”
If we do (as the scripture says) “everything as unto the Lord” – if we live as the Bible says, “In everything (giving) thanks,” then even the normal, predictable, mundane duties of life are not just “going through the motions.”
YOU can decide if it has meaning and purpose or not.
? Do you realize that if you have a true routine you don’t need “motivation?”
You do what needs to be done from conditioning. That is a good thing.
There is a positive, joyful side to the daily routine - if you look for it
There was a hit song by that wonderful 60’s band “The Monkees” called “Pleasant Valley Sunday”
It was a reflection of the countercultural zeitgeistof young people trying to create something new due to the disillusionment they perceived of the existing culture.
“Another Pleasant Valley Sunday (Sunday) - Charcoal burning everywhere Rows of houses that are all the same - And no one seems to care”
Now in 2025 people realize that was actually a pretty good way to live J
Find the Joy in the mundane – because this is where most of life occurs.
Don’t just accept the day-to-day routine – treasure it!
“Growing through the motions”
Find ways to LOVE your daily routine.
“Waiting for my real life to begin” – Colin Hay
Ben Franklin: “Do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made out of.”
Ecc 5:18: But I realized that there is one good thing for people to do. We should be happy to eat and to drink. And we should enjoy the hard work that we do on the earth. That is what God wants us to do during the short time that he has given us on this earth.
Travelling is great - for a time. Going new places – especially places with different cultures and traditions - can really wake you up- and teach you about life.
A nice vacation can do wonders for us. It’s been years since I have been to the beach, but a good beach trip is really good for the soul.
But I also feel like my dad always did.
After a bit, you are ready and happy to go back home. To return to the routine.
Travelling is always amazing to me. I can’t fully explain it – but there is just something so fascinating about flying far away and knowing that all you are has travelled with you – or has it?
Don’t you feel alone sometimes when you’re away from home base?
“No matter where you go - there YOU are.” There is no place you can go that God is not. Profoundly simple - yet simply profound.
It is the answer to loneliness. - the answer to powerlessness.
It is simply a matter of abiding.
China: “Christ the Lord is Risen Today”
If you cannot find the joy in the routine – in the mundane – in those “normal days” of life – then you are simply missing the purpose of that time – which is for equipping you for what God has for you to do when the set moment arrives.
Jesus said, “God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.”
There is a good kind of poverty – the kind that recognizes how empty and alone we are without God.
In the sixteenth century Copernicus was the first to claim that the earth revolves around the sun – and not the other way around.
In the same way, many people think that if they clean up their lives, if they can “make” themselves righteous, then God will love them.
The truth is quite the opposite. The truth is, once we come to experience God’s love – we begin to change from the inside out.
We’ve got to connect – and remain connected to our God – our source.
Remember – we do this by Faith.
The Bible talks about “Dwelling in the Secret Place…” “Abiding in Christ…”
Staying connected to the Vine *(Jesus)
“In Him we live and move and have our being.”
? You ever have one of those times where you have lots of questions and no clear answers?
“God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.”
Step One: We admitted we were powerless over _______
– that our lives had become unmanageable.
One morning I was praying and I wrote these words:
“Lord, I know that I don’t know everything – I have so much to learn.
But I know that I am complete in You. I know that I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me.”
At that very moment, His Presence and Peace filled me as I just submitted to Him.
Waiting. A broken, empty vessel.
“Those who trust in the Lord will lack no good thing.”
When we trust God is with us – Emmanuel - when we depend on Him, we can have peace for today and bright hope for tomorrow.
Jesus said, “Take no thought for tomorrow.”
I had a conversation with someone about how hard it is for them to live in the moment.
Everything is either a memory or a dreaded future event.
I know I have had whole vacations where all I thought about was being back home.
How many moments have we missed by not listening to The Master – by worrying – by walking in fear of tomorrow instead of faith for today?
If we are present in the moment, we are not in fear.
Staying Present – in His Presence. (selah)
The great composer Tchaikovsky once said that he spent his entire life “regretting the past and hoping for the future, never being satisfied in the present.”
The present is all we have. We must learn to be “Complete in Him” NOW.
If we will live in the Present Moment – if we will abide in His Presence – we can once again discover we are “Complete In Him.”
If you will live in this revelation that you are, indeed, “complete in Him,” your whole life will change.
You can live in the moment and live in His peace.
It takes practice and it takes persistence – but it is worth the effort.
If we are “complete in Him” (which we are,) we should live like it.
Our lives should demonstrate this truth.
Stop seeing lack – start seeing completion.
Decree over your life – by decreeing over your day
Jesus said, “…does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.”
Mark 11:24: This is the reason I urge you to boldly believe for whatever you ask for in prayer—be convinced that you have received it and it will be yours.
Speak blessings over the whole thing you call “your life”
Whosoever meaneth ME.
Prov 28:10 says, “ … the upright shall possess good things.”
Ecc 6:6: Even if he lives 2,000 years, it is sad if a person can’t enjoy the good things God gives him.
Abiding is a choice. It is a deliberate act of faith to cast aside your doubts and fears and wait upon the Lord.
To live in His Present in the Present moment.
Beloved, don’t hesitate to come to your Heavenly Father. God, who is so full of goodness and supply.
He is always willing to bless, preserve, heal and restore you.
“Fill my cup, Lord…”
Isaiah 40:31: But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
Ecclesiastes 1:8-10
"When everyday seems the same, it is because we have stopped noticing the good things that appear in our lives." ~ Paulo Coelho
Msg: Find the Joy in the mundane – because this is where most of life occurs.
mun•dane - of, relating to, or characteristic of the world
2 : characterized by the practical, transitory, and ordinary : COMMONPLACE
Find the Joy in the mundane – because this is where most of life occurs.
There is a positive, joyful side to the daily routine - if you look for it
There are daily chores we must do
There are obligations, and there are monthly, weekly and daily duties that fill our days.
But if we just wish all of these things away, (along with all the precious time included,) what do we have left? Not much.
Ec 9:10: Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with (all) your might
Col 3:23: Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men…
Put your life back into your life.
Find the Joy in the mundane – because this is where most of life occurs.
There is a Christian song I love that says, “I don’t want to spend my life going through the motions.”
If we do (as the scripture says) “everything as unto the Lord” – if we live as the Bible says, “In everything (giving) thanks,” then even the normal, predictable, mundane duties of life are not just “going through the motions.”
YOU can decide if it has meaning and purpose or not.
? Do you realize that if you have a true routine you don’t need “motivation?”
You do what needs to be done from conditioning. That is a good thing.
There is a positive, joyful side to the daily routine - if you look for it
There was a hit song by that wonderful 60’s band “The Monkees” called “Pleasant Valley Sunday”
It was a reflection of the countercultural zeitgeistof young people trying to create something new due to the disillusionment they perceived of the existing culture.
“Another Pleasant Valley Sunday (Sunday) - Charcoal burning everywhere Rows of houses that are all the same - And no one seems to care”
Now in 2025 people realize that was actually a pretty good way to live J
Find the Joy in the mundane – because this is where most of life occurs.
Don’t just accept the day-to-day routine – treasure it!
“Growing through the motions”
Find ways to LOVE your daily routine.
“Waiting for my real life to begin” – Colin Hay
Ben Franklin: “Do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made out of.”
Ecc 5:18: But I realized that there is one good thing for people to do. We should be happy to eat and to drink. And we should enjoy the hard work that we do on the earth. That is what God wants us to do during the short time that he has given us on this earth.
Travelling is great - for a time. Going new places – especially places with different cultures and traditions - can really wake you up- and teach you about life.
A nice vacation can do wonders for us. It’s been years since I have been to the beach, but a good beach trip is really good for the soul.
But I also feel like my dad always did.
After a bit, you are ready and happy to go back home. To return to the routine.
Travelling is always amazing to me. I can’t fully explain it – but there is just something so fascinating about flying far away and knowing that all you are has travelled with you – or has it?
Don’t you feel alone sometimes when you’re away from home base?
“No matter where you go - there YOU are.” There is no place you can go that God is not. Profoundly simple - yet simply profound.
It is the answer to loneliness. - the answer to powerlessness.
It is simply a matter of abiding.
China: “Christ the Lord is Risen Today”
If you cannot find the joy in the routine – in the mundane – in those “normal days” of life – then you are simply missing the purpose of that time – which is for equipping you for what God has for you to do when the set moment arrives.
Jesus said, “God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.”
There is a good kind of poverty – the kind that recognizes how empty and alone we are without God.
In the sixteenth century Copernicus was the first to claim that the earth revolves around the sun – and not the other way around.
In the same way, many people think that if they clean up their lives, if they can “make” themselves righteous, then God will love them.
The truth is quite the opposite. The truth is, once we come to experience God’s love – we begin to change from the inside out.
We’ve got to connect – and remain connected to our God – our source.
Remember – we do this by Faith.
The Bible talks about “Dwelling in the Secret Place…” “Abiding in Christ…”
Staying connected to the Vine *(Jesus)
“In Him we live and move and have our being.”
? You ever have one of those times where you have lots of questions and no clear answers?
“God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.”
Step One: We admitted we were powerless over _______
– that our lives had become unmanageable.
One morning I was praying and I wrote these words:
“Lord, I know that I don’t know everything – I have so much to learn.
But I know that I am complete in You. I know that I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me.”
At that very moment, His Presence and Peace filled me as I just submitted to Him.
Waiting. A broken, empty vessel.
“Those who trust in the Lord will lack no good thing.”
When we trust God is with us – Emmanuel - when we depend on Him, we can have peace for today and bright hope for tomorrow.
Jesus said, “Take no thought for tomorrow.”
I had a conversation with someone about how hard it is for them to live in the moment.
Everything is either a memory or a dreaded future event.
I know I have had whole vacations where all I thought about was being back home.
How many moments have we missed by not listening to The Master – by worrying – by walking in fear of tomorrow instead of faith for today?
If we are present in the moment, we are not in fear.
Staying Present – in His Presence. (selah)
The great composer Tchaikovsky once said that he spent his entire life “regretting the past and hoping for the future, never being satisfied in the present.”
The present is all we have. We must learn to be “Complete in Him” NOW.
If we will live in the Present Moment – if we will abide in His Presence – we can once again discover we are “Complete In Him.”
If you will live in this revelation that you are, indeed, “complete in Him,” your whole life will change.
You can live in the moment and live in His peace.
It takes practice and it takes persistence – but it is worth the effort.
If we are “complete in Him” (which we are,) we should live like it.
Our lives should demonstrate this truth.
Stop seeing lack – start seeing completion.
Decree over your life – by decreeing over your day
Jesus said, “…does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.”
Mark 11:24: This is the reason I urge you to boldly believe for whatever you ask for in prayer—be convinced that you have received it and it will be yours.
Speak blessings over the whole thing you call “your life”
Whosoever meaneth ME.
Prov 28:10 says, “ … the upright shall possess good things.”
Ecc 6:6: Even if he lives 2,000 years, it is sad if a person can’t enjoy the good things God gives him.
Abiding is a choice. It is a deliberate act of faith to cast aside your doubts and fears and wait upon the Lord.
To live in His Present in the Present moment.
Beloved, don’t hesitate to come to your Heavenly Father. God, who is so full of goodness and supply.
He is always willing to bless, preserve, heal and restore you.
“Fill my cup, Lord…”
Isaiah 40:31: But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.