Why God Often Does His Greatest Work Through Our Most Ordinary Days
“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.”
Colossians 3:23
There is an old saying I have always liked: “Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.” I first wrote about that idea years ago because it captured something I had learned about achievement. Goals matter. Without goals, there is often no growth. But eventually I began to understand something deeper: the destination is rarely where the real transformation occurs. God does much of His work in us while we are walking the road—or, perhaps more accurately, while we are chopping the wood and carrying the water.
God Is in the Ordinary
We tend to look for God in the extraordinary: the breakthrough, the promotion, the answered prayer, the big decision, or the mountaintop experience. And certainly, God meets us in those places. But most of life is not lived on mountaintops. Most of life happens on an ordinary Tuesday morning, when there are emails to answer, people to encourage, meetings to attend, children to raise, bills to pay, problems to solve, and commitments to honor. There is wood to chop and water to carry.
Paul gives us a remarkable perspective on these ordinary responsibilities: “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord.” Colossians 3:23 Notice the first word: whatever. Paul does not limit this instruction to ministry, obviously important work, or the things that receive public recognition. He says whatever you do. When our work becomes an offering to God, even ordinary responsibilities take on extraordinary meaning. The task may remain ordinary, but the purpose behind it is transformed.
The Goal Is Important. The Process Changes You.
Goals are essential. They give us direction, stretch us beyond our current limitations, and force us to move instead of remaining passive. But achieving one goal usually creates another. There is always another mountain, another destination, another challenge, or another level to pursue. If our joy exists only at the finish line, we will spend most of our lives waiting to be happy.
Scripture offers another way to understand ambition: “Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.” Proverbs 16:3 The emphasis is not simply on the outcome. It is on committing the work to God. We bring Him our effort, discipline, uncertainty, and mistakes. We bring Him the ordinary Tuesday morning, not just the eventual success we hope it will produce. Then we trust Him with the outcome.
That changes the nature of ambition. We can pursue excellence without worshiping achievement. We can work diligently without believing that our worth depends on the result. We can care deeply about what we are building while remembering that God is more concerned with who we are becoming than with how impressive our accomplishments appear.
Comparison Is a Terrible Fuel
One of the traps of achievement is comparison. Someone will always have a bigger company, a better title, more money, more followers, a nicer house, or a lower golf handicap. There is always someone available to make you feel inadequate if you are determined enough to find them. Comparison eventually turns achievement into a treadmill because there is no point at which another person's success stops threatening your sense of worth.
The Christian life offers a radically different standard: faithfulness. Jesus said, “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much.” Luke 16:10 God does not ask us to live someone else's calling. He asks us to be faithful with what He has placed in our hands: our abilities, opportunities, relationships, resources, responsibilities, weaknesses, and strengths.
The question is not, “How am I doing compared with everyone else?” The better question is, “Am I being faithful with what God has given me today?” That question brings us back to reality. It frees us from the exhausting need to measure our lives against people whose circumstances, assignments, and responsibilities are different from our own. Faithfulness is personal. It is measured by obedience to the work God has actually given us, not by comparison with work He has given someone else.
Greatness Usually Looks Like Dirty Work
Everyone likes the idea of greatness. The actual process is considerably less glamorous. It involves practice, repetition, failure, correction, patience, and starting again. In my original version of this essay, I wrote, “Greatness isn't sexy. It's dirty work.” I still believe that. I would simply add that faithfulness is rarely glamorous either.
Faithfulness means showing up when nobody applauds, keeping your word when breaking it would be easier, and doing excellent work when nobody is watching. It may mean forgiving someone who never apologizes, serving when there is nothing obvious in it for you, praying when God seems quiet, or doing the next right thing simply because it is the right thing to do. These actions rarely produce immediate recognition, but they shape the kind of person we become. That is what it means to chop wood and carry water: to keep doing the work God has placed before us, even when the work feels repetitive, hidden, or insignificant.
God Can Work Through Our Limitations
One of the great mistakes we make is believing that God can use only our strengths. Scripture tells a very different story. God has always worked through imperfect people. Moses doubted his ability to speak. Peter was impulsive. Paul spoke openly about his weakness. The disciples repeatedly misunderstood Jesus. The qualification for serving God is apparently not perfection, which is good news because most of us would have been eliminated in the first round.
Our weaknesses can become places where dependence on God grows. They can expose our need for wisdom, patience, courage, and grace. But that requires something difficult: we have to see ourselves truthfully. We cannot grow while pretending to be stronger, wiser, or more capable than we are. Nor can we serve effectively if we refuse to acknowledge the gifts God has given us. Honest self-knowledge is not self-absorption. It is part of stewardship.
Four Steps Toward Faithful Growth
The four ideas I wrote about years ago still hold up, but today I would frame them as four movements toward faithful growth.
1. See Yourself Clearly
Ask God to reveal both your strengths and your weaknesses. David prayed, “Search me, God, and know my heart.”Psalm 139:23 Spiritual growth begins with truth. We need to know where we are strong, where we are vulnerable, what motivates us, and where our desires may be distorted by pride, fear, or insecurity.
2. Admit Your Weaknesses Honestly
There is enormous freedom in admitting what we cannot do. Paul discovered that God's strength often becomes most visible through our weakness. We do not have to pretend that we are self-sufficient. We can ask for help, accept correction, seek wise counsel, and allow other people to contribute what we lack. Dependence on God is not a failure of maturity; it is one of its clearest expressions.
3. Discover Your God-Given Strengths Joyfully
God has given each of us gifts, and part of our responsibility is discovering them. What energizes you? What comes naturally to you? Where do others consistently seek your help? What kind of work allows you to serve people with both competence and joy? These questions can help reveal the ways God may be inviting you to contribute. We do not need to imitate someone else's gifts in order to be useful. We need to recognize and faithfully develop our own.
4. Build Those Strengths Faithfully
Talent is a gift, but development is stewardship. If God has entrusted you with an ability, cultivate it. Practice it, strengthen it, and use it in service to others. Growth usually comes through repetition rather than sudden inspiration. We become dependable by doing the work consistently, learning from failure, accepting correction, and returning to the task. Then we repeat the process: chop wood and carry water.
Faithfulness Before Fruitfulness
Our culture celebrates outcomes, but God repeatedly emphasizes faithfulness. That distinction matters because we cannot control every result. We cannot control the economy, other people's decisions, every opportunity, or every setback. We cannot guarantee that our work will receive recognition or that our efforts will produce the results we hoped for.
We can, however, choose whether we show up faithfully. We can pray, prepare, serve, practice, keep our commitments, and love the person standing in front of us. We can do the work with integrity and leave the results in God's hands. Perhaps that is why Jesus said, “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much.” Luke 16:10The small things are not really small. They are training grounds where character is formed, trust is established, and our capacity for greater responsibility is developed.
Faithfulness does not mean that every task is equally important or that we should never pursue change. It means that we refuse to despise the present assignment while waiting for a more impressive one. We learn to honor the work in front of us without assuming that its current size determines its eternal significance.
The Work in Front of You
Maybe you are waiting for something significant to happen: a new opportunity, a breakthrough, a promotion, a clearer calling, or an answered prayer. There is nothing wrong with asking God for those things. But while you wait, look at what He has already placed in front of you. Look at your work, family, relationships, responsibilities, gifts, and community. Notice the person who needs encouragement and the task that needs to be done well.
Perhaps the question is not, “God, when will You give me something bigger?” Perhaps it is, “God, how can I be faithful with what You have already given me?” That question does not eliminate ambition; it purifies it. It teaches us to pursue the future without neglecting the present, to prepare for greater responsibility by honoring the responsibility we already have, and to trust that God can use ordinary obedience in ways we cannot yet see.
So do the work in front of you. Chop the wood and carry the water. Commit your efforts to the Lord, work with all your heart as though you are working for Him, and remain faithful in the small things. God is doing something through the work, and perhaps more importantly, He is doing something through you. The ordinary work we faithfully place in God's hands may turn out to be some of the most important work we ever do.
