I have known people who are really good with “special projects” but not so good at daily routine. People who would rather paint a room than keep it neat and clean on a daily basis. Sahil Bloom spoke to this in a blog posted October 8, 2025: The Costs of Entry in Life. Here’s the section on Boredom:

Boredom of routine is a cost of entry for success

Social media rewired our brains to constantly chase novelty. We swipe until we find the fresh, new thing that grabs our attention.

But unfortunately, that obsession with novelty is the single greatest risk to building the life you want.

An observation on the most successful people I’ve been around:

They have a high tolerance for boredom.

The most meaningful things in life are built through the consistent execution of the very boring basics. Businesses are built through years of pounding away on a core, central idea. Careers are built through years of showing up and doing what you say you’re going to do. Relationships are built through years of presence. Bodies are built through years of basic daily movement and nutrition.

Real success isn’t flashy. It’s built through long periods of extremely disciplined, boring routines. If you chase novelty, you’ll never allow the magic of compounding to do its thing.

Find joy in the boring. Show up, do the work, repeat.

To shine in the light, you have to embrace the boredom in the dark. – Sahil Bloom, October 8, 2025, emphasis his

For example, some of us like the flashy conferences but not the discipline of daily time with God. We might need to “…embrace boredom in the dark.”

And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. (Matthew 6.5, 6, NKJV)

Whom will he teach knowledge? And whom will he make to understand the message? Those just weaned from milk? Those just drawn from the breasts? For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, Line upon line, line upon line, Here a little, there a little. (Isaiah 28.9, 10, NKJV)

I accidentally published God at Work. Please disregard. It will come at the appropriate time later this week.

I hope yesterday’s blog on Psalm 113 on our trusting God’s power with respect to our house sale encourages you to trust God for a practical, perhaps overwhelming, need in your life. Let’s continue that line of thinking as we move to Psalm 114:

God can and does work. He is powerful. He can move mountains and seas:

When Israel went out of Egypt…The sea saw it and fled; Jordan turned back. The mountains skipped like rams, The little hills like lambs.

What ails you, O sea, that you fled? O Jordan, that you turned back? O mountains, that you skipped like rams? O little hills, like lambs?

Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, At the presence of the God of Jacob, Who turned the rock into a pool of water, The flint into a fountain of waters. (Psalm 114.1 – 8, NKJV)

These are scenes from Exodus – Joshua. The Red Sea parted (Exodus 14) and the Jordan River (Joshua 3). Mt Sinai trembled at the presence of the Lord and and no doubt skipped like a ram (Exodus 19). And when they needed water, it came from a rock (Exodus 17).

I need to be reminded:

Is anything too hard for the LORD? (Genesis 18.14, ESV)

“Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me? (Jeremiah 32.27, ESV)

There are obstacles in this move, but God can make them go away. Solid rock can become a pool of water. The sea and the river can part.

There is nothing here challenging ME to do something. It’s God at work.

There’s a Beetle Bailey comic, January 1, 2007, in which General Halftrack is looking at a bulletin board advertising activities at Camp Swampy including:

• Dance! This weekend
• Volleyball schedule
• Tour of Poco City Thursday
• Wanted: ride to Reno
• Horseshoe Tournament Sunday
• Book Club Meeting
• Guitar for Sale

The General says to the major:

It’s hard to believe there’s a war on.

I’ve always thought, “If we looked at your church bulletin, would we know there’s a war on?”

Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. (Ephesians 6.10 – 13, NKJV)

I was reminded of this recently when I received an email from what everyone would call a “good church.” Signals are mixed, at best:

• Girls lunch: Come learn how to play the game that’s all the craze – Mahjong! Join other ladies for a fun afternoon of food and fellowship.
• A special event for our widows – a time of fellowship, music, laughter, testimony and great food. We’ll meet from 10-11:30 AM in Room 8114, located in the Activity Center…
• Joyful Journeys (for those ages 55-75) would like to invite you to a Tailgating Event Oct. 25 from 12 – 4 PM. Come join us for football, food and fellowship!

Then this entry:

Midweek Communion Service: Listen to our Oct. 8 message, “Jude: Called to Contend,” as the Pastor reflects on Jude 1-4.

“Called to Contend.” The pastor gets it. We’re in a battle. But this seemingly important “Midweek Communion Service” announcement is competing with advertisements for Mahjong and football, among other things.

I don’t know the solution. I know we need fun and fellowship from time to time, but it seems hard to focus on training for the war when our church bulletins look like the activities menu from a country club or retirement home.

Then I saw a 3-year-old post about Jordan Peterson containing this insightful recommendation:

Peterson thinks Christianity has what young men are looking for. It promotes vocation and dominion, the fulfillment of male ambition and desire. It gives purpose and order to chaos. It sets goals and offers a reward.

He challenges churches to “invite the young men back.” He tells them to say, “Young men are welcome here.” Put up a billboard with that message, he suggests. Tell them they can come in and they will.

Peterson wants churches to set high expectations for men. “Ask more, not less, of those you are inviting,” he says. “Ask more of them than anyone ever has. Remind them who they are, in the deepest sense, and help them become that.”

The late Leroy Eims, a patriarch in The Navigators, the organization with which I serve use to say:

If you play a man’s game, men will come.

There’s something to that, and we’re not ruling women out! Churches should call all of us to mission, not just fun. After all, there’s a war on.

And that about wraps it up. God is strong, and he wants you strong. So take everything the Master has set out for you, well-made weapons of the best materials. And put them to use so you will be able to stand up to everything the Devil throws your way. This is no afternoon athletic contest that we’ll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours. This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels. (Ephesians 6.10 – 12, MSG)

And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. (Revelation 12.17, NKJV)

Psalm 108 is a lesson on “keep praying anyway.” It starts out in praise:

O God, my heart is steadfast; I will sing and give praise, even with my glory. Awake, lute and harp! I will awaken the dawn. I will praise You, O LORD, among the peoples, And I will sing praises to You among the nations. For Your mercy is great above the heavens, And Your truth reaches to the clouds. (Psalm 108.1 – 4, NKJV)

Sounds great, but what’s the background? Israel is supposed to be God’s favorite:

God has spoken in His holiness: “I will rejoice; I will divide Shechem And measure out the Valley of Succoth. Gilead is Mine; Manasseh is Mine; Ephraim also is the helmet for My head; Judah is My lawgiver. (Psalm 108.7, 8, NKJV)

“I like the tribes of Israel…” And:

Moab is My washpot; Over Edom I will cast My shoe; Over Philistia I will triumph.” (Psalm 108.9, NKJV)

“I don’t care anything about Moab, Edom, and Philistia,” but…

Who will bring me into the strong city? Who will lead me to Edom? Is it not You, O God, who cast us off? And You, O God, who did not go out with our armies? (Psalm 108.10 – 11, NKJV)

We’re supposed to be the favorite. We should be able to conquer Edom, but you’ve quit helping us! What to do? Keep praying:

Give us help from trouble, For the help of man is useless. Through God we will do valiantly, For it is He who shall tread down our enemies. (Psalm 108.12 – 13, NKJV)

And he did. Israel is still here! And I don’t see any news about Edom, Moab, and Philistia (except Philistine territory – Gaza – is very much a present enemy).

Read Revelation. God wins. We win. But there are times when it appears we are not winning. And if we understand there’s a war on, this situation wouldn’t be surprising. (More tomorrow about the war.)

And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints… (Ephesians 6.17, 18, NKJV)

Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!” (Revelation 11.15, NKJV)

I think King David gets a bad rap for Psalm 109. He does seem to wish evil on his enemies. Here’s a sample:

Let his children continually be vagabonds, and beg; Let them seek their bread also from their desolate places. Let the creditor seize all that he has, And let strangers plunder his labor. (Psalm 109.10, 11, NKJV)

Two observations to start: first, this command hadn’t been given yet:

Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. (Jesus, recorded in Matthew 5.11 – 13, NIV)

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. (Paul in Romans 12.14, NIV)

Second, David is not our role model, Jesus is.

That said, I don’t think the curses of Psalm 109.6 – 19 say what they appear to say at first glance. Here’s how the psalm starts:

To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David. Do not keep silent, O God of my praise! For the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful Have opened against me; They have spoken against me with a lying tongue. They have also surrounded me with words of hatred, And fought against me without a cause. (Psalm 109.Introduction, 1 – 3, NKJV)

David is being accused by enemies, always referred to in the plural. “They have spoken against me…” And…

In return for my love they are my accusers, But I give myself to prayer. Thus they have rewarded me evil for good, And hatred for my love. (Psalm 109.4, 5, NKJV)

I like the way NLT begins the cursing section of Psalm 109. And notice, that the object of the curses is always in the singular. These are not David’s curses on his enemies; these are the enemies’ curses on David.

They say, “Get an evil person to turn against him. Send an accuser to bring him to trial. When his case comes up for judgment, let him be pronounced guilty. Count his prayers as sins. (Psalm 109.6, 7, NLT)

“They say” is inserted, but it’s certainly implied since, again, David refers to his enemies in the plural while the curses of verses 6 – 19 are in the singular. I think David is praying his enemies’ curses back to God.

And to be sure, he does wish his enemies’ curses to fall on his enemies:

May those curses become the LORD’s punishment for my accusers who speak evil of me. But deal well with me, O Sovereign LORD, for the sake of your own reputation! Rescue me because you are so faithful and good. (Psalm 109.20, 21, NLT)

My takeaway from Psalm 109 is that if I’m not up for blessing my enemies or rejoicing in persecution, I can follow David’s example and bring my enemies’ actions to God’s attention and pray for God’s deliverance.

Help me, O LORD my God! Oh, save me according to Your mercy, That they may know that this is Your hand— That You, LORD, have done it! Let them curse, but You bless; When they arise, let them be ashamed, But let Your servant rejoice. Let my accusers be clothed with shame, And let them cover themselves with their own disgrace as with a mantle. I will greatly praise the LORD with my mouth; Yes, I will praise Him among the multitude. For He shall stand at the right hand of the poor, To save him from those who condemn him. (Psalm 109.26 – 31, NKJV)

I had lunch recently with a good friend, strong believer, all-around good guy, whose three adult children have abandoned their faith (I’d like to think, temporarily, but we don’t know that). Our society is definitely “post Christian,” and it’s easy to wonder why the Gospel doesn’t seem to work anymore.

But it does, and the God who delivered all those groups in Psalm 107 is still alive and well. Here’s a story for your encouragement. The Gospel does work. There is transformation. Around the world. This story from Christianity Today: From a Village of Bandits to a Village of the Gospel is too good not to share. It opens:

Over the past four decades, octogenarian Bollaku Issak has preached hundreds of sermons. The diminutive pastor with white hair and a knock-kneed gait ends each service with the same altar call.“If God can save a wretched sinner like me, he will definitely save you,” he says, his voice softening. “You are no different. You are loved. Just surrender. Repent and be saved.”

Often as he utters those words, tears well up in his eyes, transporting him to his life before Christ. He once lived as an armed robber, or dacoit, in Stuartpuram, an infamous village in Andhra Pradesh considered a “reformatory colony” by the British colonial government. Families lived off banditry for generations and passed it on to their children as an inheritance. In the aftermath of any major theft in the region, police invariably suspected Stuartpuram gangs.

Bollaku himself led a band of nine men, breaking into houses, trains, banks, and government offices, he recalled in a recorded testimony. He earned the moniker Bangaru Pichchuka(“Golden Sparrow”) for absconding with gold worth millions of rupees and for going on thrilling escapades.

Bollaku was finally caught and sent to prison, sentenced to seven years. The story continues:

In prison, a fellow convict who had recently became a Christian explained the gospel to Bollaku. Hearing about the love of Christ and the promise of salvation reinvigorated his spirit. Over the next two months, he prayed, sobbed, repented of his sins, and learned about the Bible. He prayed persistently that somehow his prison term would be shortened to a year.

“It was a miracle!” he said in the testimony about the trial. “The prosecution could not gather evidence. The court struck down the charges against me. I was completely set free.”

Wait! There’s more!!

After walking out of prison, he spent the next 14 years serving as a volunteer at a local church—sweeping floors, cooking, and cleaning dishes. As a spiritual life of prayer and service took root, he never returned to his old ways. One morning as he prayed, Bollaku had a vision: Jesus laid hands on him, instructing him to testify about the Good News that had turned his life around. Since then, Bollaku has sought to follow this calling. (Note: compare Mark 5.1 – 20.)

Bollaku’s testimony is not uncommon in Stuartpuram, which in the past four decades has seen a revival as nearly all its 5,000 residents have become Christians. The “Village of Dacoits” has become Suvarthapuram, Telugu for “Gospel Village.”

“People here live out Christianity, be it in personal or professional lives,” Bollaku told CT. “God has become the center of our pursuits today. This was unheard of a generation back.”

I encourage you to read the article in its entirety.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. (Romans 1.16, NKJV)

I’ve had a good time going through the Wisdom books at most one chapter per day. I hope you have too. We’re now entering the last phase. We interspersed the five books of the Psalms with Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon, and now we’re on the last lap: Psalms, Book Five. (Or Book V, depending on your version!)

Book 5 opens with a bang: Psalm 107, the psalm of deliverance:

Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever. Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, Whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy, And gathered out of the lands, From the east and from the west, From the north and from the south. (Psalm 107.1 – 3, NKJV)

And the text follows with a variety of things to be delivered from:

They wandered in the wilderness in a desolate way; They found no city to dwell in. Hungry and thirsty, Their soul fainted in them. (Psalm 107.4, 5, NKJV)

…

Those who sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, Bound in affliction and irons— Because they rebelled against the words of God, And despised the counsel of the Most High, Therefore He brought down their heart with labor; They fell down, and there was none to help. (Psalm 107.10 – 12, NKJV)

…

Fools, because of their transgression, And because of their iniquities, were afflicted. Their soul abhorred all manner of food, And they drew near to the gates of death. (Psalm 107.17, 18, NKJV)

…

Those who go down to the sea in ships, Who do business on great waters, They see the works of the LORD, And His wonders in the deep. For He commands and raises the stormy wind, Which lifts up the waves of the sea. They mount up to the heavens, They go down again to the depths; Their soul melts because of trouble. They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, And are at their wits’ end. (Psalm 107.23 – 27, NKJV)

Four situations all ending in despair and all followed by the same response:

Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, And He delivered them out of their distresses. (Psalm 107.6, 13, 19, 28, NKJV)

They prayed! And God delivered. Each vignette is followed by the specifics of their deliverance and ends with this challenge:

Oh, that men would give thanks to the LORD for His goodness, And for His wonderful works to the children of men! (Psalm 107.8, 15, 21, 31, NKJV)

Take a few minutes and read the whole psalm, which ends with:

Whoever is wise will observe these things, And they will understand the lovingkindness of the LORD. (Psalm 107.43, NKJV)

Here’s a simple lesson after a familiar story. Jesus returns to Nazareth.

He went away from there and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. (Mark 6.1, ESV)

But his hometown friends rejected him…

And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. And he marveled because of their unbelief. (Mark 6.5, 6a, ESV)

In a discipleship class a while back someone observed, “Maybe he healed only a few because only a few asked.” Unbelief among everyone else.

BUT, he kept going. It’s easy to skip over the last sentence in the story:

And he went about among the villages teaching. (Mark 6.6b, ESV)

That last sentence may be among the most important. What do you do after rejection? Jesus kept doing what he was doing.

He gave essentially the same counsel to the 12 when he sent them out a few verses later:

And he said to them, “Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there. And if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to you, when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.” (Mark 6.10, 11, ESV)

Shake the dust off and keep going. Not a bad word.

There’s a lesson early in Mark’s gospel that reinforces the same message embedded in two disparate articles. First, from Mark, what’s one of the first things Jesus does?

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

Passing alongside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” And immediately they left their nets and followed him.

And going on a little farther, he saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, who were in their boat mending the nets. And immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him. (Mark 1.14 – 20, ESV)

Jesus calls men to follow him, and we would do well to remember that in most events following, Jesus is accompanied by his men.

Passing alongside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen…And they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue and was teaching. (Mark 1.16…21, ESV)

“He saw Simon…” “They went into Capernaum…” Jesus ministers with his guys alongside.

Now the articles. The first is a news item that the Roman Catholic Church is experiencing a shortage of priests. There are several contributing factors, which you can read for yourself. I want to highlight a simple story from deep into the article. If there’s a shortage of professional manpower, what do you do? Engage the amateurs!

At St. Patrick’s church in Belfast, Northern Ireland, the Rev. Eugene O’Neill is now the lone priest—the first time the parish has had just one priest in the past two centuries. The diocese is also dwindling. When O’Neill became a priest in the early 1990s, there were more than 200 priests in the Down and Connor diocese. Now, there are 97, a figure expected to decline to 27 in two decades’ time, O’Neill said.

The lack of manpower means less time for pastoral care. When he first arrived nine years ago, O’Neill and three other priests continued a tradition of visiting housebound parishioners—usually 80 or so people—at least once a month. That soon changed to once every two months, then just once a quarter. 

“Now, even that’s not possible for me anymore,” said O’Neill, a talkative 57-year-old with an athletic build and trim beard. 

He’s increasingly focused on training lay ministers to take communion to the sick, visit grieving families and participate in the school boards of parochial schools—all duties O’Neill no longer has time for. 

“I’ve moved from seeing myself as the doer of everything to more as a convener or enabler of the priestly ministry of all baptized,” he said. – Wall Street Journal, September 22, 2025

Duh! Look to your founder. “Training lay ministers” is the first thing Jesus did! “Enabling the priestly ministry of all baptized” was the strategy that the Apostle Paul passed on to Timothy:

And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others. (2 Timothy 2.2, NIV)

The second article makes the same point from the perspective of counseling: Bearing One Another’s Burdens Means More Than Therapy Referrals, Christianity Today, June 1, 2025. The article’s authors have written a book, When Hurting People Come to Church, that makes this point:

The key is that laypeople within the church can be trained to listen and walk alongside those with basic needs.  – emphasis theirs

Again, we need to be following Jesus’ example of training laypeople. It’s encouraging that people are discovering the basic truth that ministry doesn’t have to be done by paid professionals. Indeed, relying on paid professionals has slowed down ministry and the spread of the gospel.

It’s discouraging that Jesus spoke to this a long time ago, and some are just now discovering this principle:

When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” (Matthew 9.36 – 38, NIV)