“Well, there’s an hour of my life I’ll never get back,” he joked to his buddies as they strolled out of the classroom. I was substituting for a high school teacher at my sons’ school, and chemistry class had just ended. The assignment for the day had been to watch a video of a not very exciting lab experiment, in which the professor was combining two solutions. One…drop…at…a…time.

As someone whose brain God did not wire to find joy in chemistry, I could identify with the kid. It was excruciating.

But whether you love chemistry or not, we’ve all been there. For you, maybe it was Shakespeare, or sitting on hold waiting for the cable company to answer your call, or one of those pointless, endless meetings at work that a two paragraph e-mail could have covered. Have you ever noticed how many boring moments there are in life?

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Good old Romans 8:28. It adorns coffee cups, calendars, and all manner of other Christian kitsch. Most of us have it at least partially memorized, and it’s our go to verse when tragedy strikes. But I think we do that precious gem of a verse a real disservice by leaving it up on the shelf at all the other times of our lives. We treat Romans 8:28 like it says, “God will bring good out of our sorrows.” He will, but that’s not what it says. It says all things work together for good.

“All things” means, well, all things. The worst day of your life. The best day of your life. And all those hum drum days in between. God works them all together to make you uniquely you in Christ.

Including those moments that are so insufferably dull that you consider gnawing your own arm off just to stay awake. (Or maybe that’s just me?) That hour of boredom isn’t an hour of your life you’ll never get back. It is life. If we’ll stop complaining and start cooperating, God will use even those periods of monotony for our good as He sanctifies us. He can teach us patience. Grow us in endurance. Remind you and me that we’re not the center of the universe.

And if God can redeem our boring moments for His purposes, maybe we could start looking for ways to redeem them for His glory as well. Taking a dull class? Make a friend and share the gospel with him. On hold? Use that time for prayer. Waiting at the doctor’s office? Study your Bible. Long line at the grocery store? Serve someone else by letting her go ahead of you, helping with her bags, or just offering a kind word.

It’s easy to forget, but this life isn’t an end in itself. Those of us who are in Christ are on a mission to know Christ and make Him known, and we are to proactively look for ways to fulfill that mission. Capture every moment and harness it for the furthering of God’s kingdom.

Doesn’t sound so boring now, does it?

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Michelle Lesley is a women’s Bible study author, ministry wife, and home schooling mom. Her goal in writing, speaking, and teaching is to train church ladies to be “Mighty Amazon Women” of God. Michelle blogs at MichelleLesleyBooks.com.