Housewives, office workers, and many other people sometimes feel that their daily activities are a monotonous round of tedious duties from which they would gladly be freed. They do not always realize that they can instantly free themselves from this apparent bondage by adopting a new view of what they are doing.

The belief that worthwhile activities can be merely routine bars the way of progress. The truth is that every right thought, every useful motion, every constructive act exemplifies qualities of Mind and therefore expresses in a degree the divine order of the universe. Every effort to meet a human need by spiritual means, however insignificant the effort may appear, is an individual manifestation, or reflection, of God's love for man. Constant repetition of such thoughts and actions does not deprive them of their value, but reiterates their dignity and majesty.

The man on the assembly line may feel that he is capable of doing more important work than the limited series of tasks which fall to his lot from moment to moment, and he well may be. But his way to advancement and promotion will not be opened by constantly minimizing the importance of his present job. Rather, it will be opened up by the realization that every task, even the most humble, is essential to the completion of the project in hand. Even the smallest grace note is a part of a great symphony. There is much inspiration to be gained from the realization that grand masterpieces are made up of minute details, and every one of these hints the realization of a right idea.

To view any rightful action as merely routine is to overlook its significance as a human expression of God's provision for the well-being of His children. Nothing good is meaningless, even though we may for the moment fail to see its importance.

I am reminded of an incident I once observed in an airplane factory. A young woman who was operating a machine which was turning out a small aluminum part remarked: "Oh, I'm so fed up with making these silly little gadgets; and I haven't the slightest notion what they're for. It's terribly boring!" A few days later she was walking along an assembly line where big transport planes were being put together. Glancing up at a wing that extended over her head, she suddenly saw one of the little parts in a prominent position on the wing. At first she was overcome with amazement. Then she jumped for joy, and to the delight of workmen standing around, she cried, pointing upward: "It's my part! It's useful! It's even important!'' From that moment she ceased to regard her work as mere routine and realized that she actually had a share in a great enterprise. Even so, we can all come to see that our most commonplace tasks endow us with the dignity of laborers in a universe where "God is working His purpose out." ^{Christian Science Hymnal, No. 82;}

There is even something to be admired in the regularity of a mechanical operation. It is an expression of law and order. Mrs. Eddy says, "The poet's line, 'Order is heaven's first law,' is so eternally true, so axiomatic, that it has become a truism; and its wisdom is as obvious in religion and scholarship as in astronomy or mathematics." ^{Retrospection and Introspection, p. 87;}

Systematic and regular performance of any action tends to become habitual. There are, of course, good habits and bad habits, and most of us try to eliminate bad ones and cultivate good ones. And even good habits must be kept under control. If an action, however good, becomes habitual in the sense of being merely thoughtless, automatic, or mechanical, it loses much of its virtue, for such action seems to exclude the operation of omnipresent, omniactive Mind.

For example, if the daily study of the weekly Lesson-Sermon in the Christian Science Quarterly should become a humdrum, listless pursuit, undertaken as a matter of dutiful routine, its value would be largely lost. No one who studies that lesson can allow himself thus to be deprived of its freshness and spontaneity. It is a never-failing wellspring of Truth. We cannot drink in its full measure of inspiration if we partake of it with apathy. We are cheating ourselves if we do not imbibe it with the joyous, alert expectation and assurance of profiting by its healing efficacy.

A good way to do this is to approach the lesson in a spirit of inquiry, asking oneself, "Now, just what specific message does each section provide for me to use today?" There is always such a message if we look for it. And if we are looking for it, really searching for it, we will not race through the lesson as a matter of routine, but will delve into it carefully, with active anticipation.

Christ Jesus' talk with the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well illustrates this point. She had come there to perform the routine duty of drawing water for her household needs. This no doubt seemed at times a tiresome chore. On this occasion she found a man there who gave her a whole new outlook on life. To begin with, he surprised her by ignoring the traditional enmity between Jew and Samaritan and asking her to give him water to drink. When she expressed her amazement at this unusual gesture, he explained, "If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water." ^{John 4:10.} When her remarks showed that she thought his statement referred to the water in the well, he replied, "Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall lie in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life."

The Master thus raised the thought of the woman from absorption in a commonplace task to the contemplation of divine Truth. Small wonder that the woman "left her waterpot" and went to bring others to hear this great Teacher, whom they recognized as "the Christ, the Saviour of the world."

May we not assume that this woman never again looked upon her daily visit to the well as a tiresome task, but perhaps saw it as her daily share in the spontaneous fulfillment of holy work for the salvation and redemption of mankind?

This same truth, which Jesus expressed so beautifully to the Samaritan woman, can elevate us all above mundane human experiences to the abiding consciousness of our spiritual activity as partakers in the majestic round of the divine unfoldment of God's love to man.