Walking, Talking, and Discipleship

How the Everyday Becomes Eternal - Including Menial Tasks

Errands are boring. So is sitting in traffic. Waiting in line is another activity I dislike. I’m sure you can think of countless other boring chores that you have to do each week. It’s easy to look at these activities with disdain, or aversion.

Photo by CDC on Unsplash

The other day I needed to go to the bank (as I do most Fridays to deposit rent from renters into my dad’s business account - I manage some properties for him), and then buy dog food. I could have gone alone and listened to a podcast. Some people suggest we “redeem” the time with something like podcasts, or audio books during those menial tasks that we all do. Sometimes that’s a good idea.

But the thing people miss is that meaningful conversation often happens around menial tasks. The sort of thing that requires little brainpower and low effort physical activity is prime conversation time. You’ve likely experienced this during holidays sitting around playing a card-game with family. It often becomes more of a memorable converation than a memorable game. The activity is just there, like chewing gum. It’s not the main course or main focus - it’s a placeholder. Conversation can fill these moments if we let it.

One of the major verses in the Old Testament is Deuteronomy 6:4-9. It reads:

4“Hear, O Israel! Yahweh is our God, Yahweh is one! 5You shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. 7You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall speak of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. 8You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as phylacteries between your eyes. 9You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. (LSB)

What I have in mind for today is not a commentary, but a comment on this passage.

This particular text (is meant to be remembered and recited it also) instructs the reader in how to transmit faith to another generation. You have to spend time with people doing everyday sort of things and having conversations. We are to be so tuned to the frequency of faith that those around us can’t help but hear the melody of our faith in everything we do.

Instead of going alone on errands last Friday, I took my son. It wasn’t a major conversation, but we sang some songs of faith in the car. We chatted with the bank workers and an employee at Target and even saw someone we knew. Then later we took the dog for a walk. I love walks because you have plenty of time for a good conversation. Anyway, as we rounded a corner in the neighborhood and the dog started sniffing the ground furiously. I knew that the flattened grass by the creek was likely a footpath that led to an old homeless encampment. So, I asked my son what he knew about homeless people. He told me about a few times he had seen them, but said he didn’t understand why they chose to live that way. Then we spent a while talking about what I know of homeless people (not much) and how to be careful of any person you don’t know but still show them God’s love. We also talked for about a block about how all people are created in the image of God, even the ones we don’t like - or we play against in sports (he’s a 10yr old).

My point is that if we are discipling people, we can choose to take them with us on our daily routines. Those boring tasks leave plenty of room for meaningful conversation. Those conversations can be about faith if we let them, or if we aren’t scared to take them there.