I am writing this at my daughter’s basketball training. As I watch them doing drils, I am taken back to my own playing days. I am particularly reminded that some drills are just boring.

I used to particularly hate the sprints in defensive stance that we were made to do. Facing up and moving, side-to-side, front-to-back, all whilst squatting in a defensive position. Not only were those drills no fun, they were also extremely tiring and the end of them felt like your thighs were on fire. Nobody enjoyed them.

Nevertheless, those drills were important. Those drills were the ones that helped you as you set yourself to defend. They were the ones that helped you keep your hands up, your body positioned rightly and ultimately to defend for significant lengths of time, ready to keep the ball (and defender) away from the basket. Those drills were boring, but they really were important.

I sometimes think aspects of the Christian life are similar. Some things we need to do as Christians can just be boring. Sometimes reading the Bible, certainly particular bits of the Bible, can feel boring. Prayer can feel boring. The ordinary, routine, let’s be honest, sometimes grind of weekly worship can seem dull, uninteresting, sometimes unimportant.

No doubt someone will want to shoot back, ‘but these things ARE interesting!’ Maybe. Sometimes. Often even. But there’s no denying not always. Reading through genealogies or ancient Hebrew Mosaic legal writing doesn’t always seem all that thrilling. Praying when you really don’t know what to pray can feel a bit dull. Meeting in a pokey church building, with a handful of people, week in and week out, can just feel deeply uninteresting.

I want to acknowledge all that whilst recognising something else: sometimes the uninteresting, not very thrilling stuff matters. Few people are thrilled by unblocking a sink or excited by fixing the toilet, but those things need doing and they are important! Some of the stuff that we sometimes find dull and boring about the Christian life are like that too. We may not be thrilled by them, but they are important and there will be a significant impact if we don’t do them.

The summum bonum of human existence is not to feel excited by everything all the time. It certainly isn’t to avoid boredom or whatever seems dull. Sometimes the dull and routine things that we find uninteresting are necessary. Without them, we end up in trouble and we will fail to enjoy (at least as fully, if not entirely) the really good and exciting stuff when we get to do that too.