Doing Nothing of Seeming Importance

Our modern culture loves productivity. The most successful people in life, it seems, are those who are the most productive—doctors speed-walking from surgery to surgery or secret agents flying private jets from city to city. Every minute of their lives, it seems, is maximized with the highest level of efficiency.

And although most of us don’t live with those standards of productivity, the current digital age has undoubtedly given us the impression of productivity. Being connected 24/7 to the internet allows us to be in two places and do two things at once. We can sit in a class over Zoom, and at the same time, we can check the score of a football game. We can be running on a treadmill, and at the same time, we can be listening to a podcast. We can even be waiting at a stop light in a car, and at the same time, we can respond to a text message. Not only can we maximize every second of our lives, but we can multiply every second through digital multitasking.

But are we really becoming more productive? Researchers argue that we think we are much better at multitasking than we are. In her book Restless Devices, sociologist Felicia Wu Song writes, “Most organizational research shows that contrary to the common intentions of increasing our productivity when we use our digital devices to multitask, we aren’t actually getting more done. When our concentration is interrupted from one task by another, it typically takes at least twenty minutes to regain focus. The quality of work goes down; our productivity and IQ scores drop. Furthermore, the overflow of content in our social media feeds and email inboxes leads us to feel chronically behind and relentlessly chased by the hounds of FOMO, the fear of missing out.”

There are two points Song is making. Firstly, when we multitask, we do a poorer-quality job in all our tasks. Secondly, when we multitask, we are more exhausted and further behind. To be clear, being productive is not a bad thing. But productivity, if left unchecked, can be an idol.

In his book Celebration of Discipline, Richard Foster wrote, “In contemporary society, our Adversary majors in three things: noise, hurry, and crowds. If he can keep us engaged in ‘muchness’ and ‘manyness,’ he will rest satisfied.”

In a culture that idolizes productivity, we deceive ourselves into thinking that staying busy is good. But the idol of productivity (like all idols) gives us the illusion of life, but it’s actually death in disguise. Staying unnecessarily busy prevents us from experiencing one of the core disciplines of the Christian faith—doing nothing of seeming importance. 

Doing Nothing of Seeming Importance

In 1 Kings 18, Elijah did something of seemingly great importance. He called on the name of Yahweh in a public showdown of deities, and Yahweh rained down fire from heaven. But in 1 Kings 19, Elijah spends a lot of time doing nothing of seeming importance. 

At the beginning of the chapter, we see that Queen Jezebel wants to kill Elijah, and Elijah is so afraid that he asks God to take his life.

What is God’s response? Well, we don’t get an answer from God right away. And in between, when Elijah asks God to take away his life and when God finally gives him instructions, a lot of ordinary things that do not seem important take place. Here’s the timeline:

• Elijah asks God to take away his life (v4).

• Elijah goes to sleep.

• An angel wakes Elijah up and gives him food to eat.

• Elijah goes to sleep again.

• An angel wakes Elijah up and gives him food to eat again.

• Elijah walks in the wilderness for 40 days until he reaches Mount Horeb.

• God asks Elijah, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” Elijah responds.

• God tells Elijah to stand on the mountain.

• A great wind comes and goes.

• A great earthquake comes and goes.

• A great fire comes and goes.

• Elijah hears a gentle whisper.

• God asks Elijah again, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” Elijah responds again.

• God instructs Elijah on what to do (v15).

Why did God wait so long before instructing Elijah on what to do? Why didn’t he tell Elijah what to do in verse 4? Why did all of these things of seeming non-importance between verse 4 and verse 15 occur?

Additionally, why the redundancy? Why did Elijah sleep and eat and then sleep and eat again? Why did God ask Elijah the same question two times?

It’s not entirely clear. But what does seem clear is that Elijah changed. At the beginning of the chapter, Elijah wanted to die. But by the end of the chapter, Elijah had found the resolve to follow God’s instructions and keep going. 

How did Elijah change? It wasn’t because he had some mind-blowing, jaw-dropping experience. It was because he had many ordinary, subtle experiences over a long period of time.

The Quiet, the Still, and the Ordinary

There’s an intentional contrast between 1 Kings 19 and the chapter before. In 1 Kings 18, God showed up instantly, in heaven’s fire. But in 1 Kings 19, God didn’t show up for 40 days. He intentionally delayed his arrival. And when he did show up, it wasn’t in the strong wind, the earthquake, or the fire. He showed up in the sound of a gentle whisper.

Sometimes the way God meets us is not in the exhilarating, the awesome, and the mind-blowing life experiences but in the quiet, the still, and the ordinary.

There’s something about sleeping and eating and sleeping again and eating again that changes us. Something about being alone in the wilderness for 40 days changes us. There’s something about being asked a question, going through different experiences, and then being asked that same question again that changes us.

These are all seemingly ordinary experiences, but it is often the everyday experiences which matter the most. It is often the doing of nothing of seeming importance that changes us.

In her book Liturgy of the Ordinary, Tish Harrison Warren writes, “​​A sign hangs on the wall in a New Monastic Christian community house: ‘Everyone wants a revolution. No one wants to do the dishes.’ I was, and remain, a Christian who longs for revolution, for things to be made new and whole in beautiful and big ways. But I am slowly seeing that you can’t get to the revolution without learning to do the dishes. The spiritual life and disciplines needed to sustain the Christian life are quiet, repetitive, and ordinary. I often want to skip the boring, daily stuff to get to the thrill of an edgy faith. But it’s in the dailiness of the Christian faith—the making the bed, the doing the dishes, the praying for our enemies, the reading the Bible, the quiet, the small—that God’s transformation takes root and grows.”

The truly important things in the Christian life may often feel very ordinary to us. But God specializes in producing extraordinary wonders through the rote and the ordinary. It may not seem like much is happening when we go on a diet, but when we stick to that diet for a whole year, we will look back and see that we have changed. And when we pray, it may not seem like much is happening, but our lives are undoubtedly transformed when we consistently pray every day for a whole year.

In our culture of productivity, we often long for revolutions. That’s often what’s so attractive about our smartphones. We believe this article needs to be shared, this statement needs to be signed, or this video needs to be watched. Everything we see online is loud, urgent, exhilarating, amazing, tragic, intense, or outrageous. It’s never ordinary or boring. Everything is a call to some kind of revolution.

But the most important revolution in which to participate is not a revolution out in the world, but it is a change in our own hearts. Our most important task is not to revolutionize the world but to revolutionize ourselves.

Our culture of productivity tells us that the measure of a life well-lived is how much we do. In this framework, we need to do more and more and more. But that thought pattern is a lie. The measure of a well-lived life is what kind of person we are. Sometimes we need to do less so that we have more time for reflection, prayer, and the ordinary—for that is how we transform and grow into the kind of person God wants us to be.

The Example of Jesus Christ

Do you know who else had to wait? Jesus Christ. It’s mind-blowing that Jesus spent thirty years doing almost nothing. We have a few biblical stories of him in infancy, and one story from when he was twelve, but for the rest of his first thirty years, we have nothing.

Perhaps when he was 27 or so, cutting some wood to make a table, he was tempted to think, “I am the Son of God in human flesh. What am I doing here? When am I going to start being productive with my life?”

But he stayed committed to the work before him—doing nothing of seeming importance for a long time. Finally, at age 30, he started his ministry. He gets baptized, and he first goes into the wilderness for 40 days, doing seemingly nothing again.

What’s fascinating about Jesus’ life is that he seemed content to do things that didn’t seem important to others. Sometimes when circumstances seemed urgent to others, he wouldn’t be rushed. When his disciples were trying to keep their boat afloat, Jesus would sleep. When the crowd rushed him to heal a sick child, he would pause to talk to a bleeding woman. He was certainly productive at times, but much of his life consisted of eating, sleeping, and praying—seemingly ordinary things. 

Why? Because many of the things that do not seem important to the world are incredibly important to God. The world wants us to be preoccupied with ‘muchness and manyness,’ but God wants us to be specific, purposeful people.

Let’s resist the pressure to be more productive than Jesus ever was. Instead, let’s follow in his footsteps— at his pace, not too fast or not too slow. Let’s embody, in the words of the late author Eugene Peterson, “a long obedience in the same direction.” May we always listen for those gentle whispers, in the loudness and the quietness, in the crowds and solitude, in the extraordinary and the ordinary. And may we be content in not always having to be productive, and instead, to do nothing of seeming importance.