Mundaneness is, I believe, part of the curse of Genesis 3. The earth no longer yields its bounty without toilsome labor and much frustration. Our routines make us more efficient, as we attempt to scratch out some form of survival in this cursed environment, but those same routines can make us more like cogs in a machine and less like humans. Life becomes a series of tasks, with few uninterrupted moments to pause, to reflect, to appreciate. Verse is a common-grace gift that enables us, through the fog of images and sounds, to again see ourselves and others as bearers of the image of God. When the poet stares at that which the rest of us merely glance at, he invites us to take a longer look along with him. It is precisely this longer look that is necessary to cultivate a sensibility for the significant.
(T. David Gordon, Why Johnny Can't Preach, approx p. 53*)
This is connected, I believe, with our modern tendency to fill every waking moment with activity and noise. We are afraid of silence; those who do not know God especially fear silence. Away from the activity of our lives, when outside under the stars, or in the quiet of the night, the knowledge of God is harder to suppress (Ecclesiastes 3:11; Romans 1:18-21).
Reading poetry and good literature may be part of the solution; reading our Bibles for uninterrupted stretches is perhaps a larger part of counteracting our obsession with constant activity that drowns out what may be far more important.
Note: I'm reading this book on my Kindle, so the page location is an estimate of its location in the print copy. The actual quote will be within a page or so of the number given.
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