Routine
In a previous post, I talked about seeing what it means to approach Christianity from a tourist perspective. Now we encounter the idea of finding our nourishment and sustenance through our practices and habits. Does that sound intimidating to you or encouraging? Perhaps both!
Each season in life has its ebbs and flows, and sometimes it’s hard to find a rhythm for what’s going to work in terms of our spiritual practices. Maybe you haphazardly sing through Sunday School songs or current worship songs or classic hymns as you rock your newborn in the middle of the night. You might find yourself falling asleep mid-thought during a prayer while you snuggle quietly next to your toddler and end up being the one who falls asleep first. There might come a stage when you sit up late at night poring over the Psalms while you wait for your newly licensed teenager to return home.
There are probably those among us who are disciplined and stubborn and find a routine that works for us through every season, but more likely, the majority of us are constantly demonstrating our flexibility by trying new methods and attempting to form new patterns and habits in the midst of changes in our pivoting lives. It might be helpful to think of this idea along the lines of dinner routines in your home. When the children were smaller, you ate dinner earlier. Once sports practices started taking place, maybe you adjusted to a later time. Maybe it has changed with one of your work schedules - if one of you works at a more unpredictable job than a 9-5 traditional schedule, maybe you automatically learned that eating later is a safer bet.
The same type of thinking can apply to your devotional life. Don’t become discouraged if you struggle with getting up early in the morning to read your Bible when your schedule switched to working the late shift. Don’t give up on nurturing the faithful prayer life you had established as you murmured to God during your daily walk because now you walk with a friend each day. Don’t give up on your daily Bible reading because you fell behind in your schedule and can’t seem to catch back up again. Look for new ways to meet God and to listen to His voice speaking to you.
John 15:5 reminds us, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” Only by staying connected to God can we thrive and grow and find our nutrition.
There’s not a magical time of day to deepen your relationship with Him.
The beautiful thing about the Christian faith is that God promises to always be with you, and that means He’s always ready to listen to you or be worshipped by you. Prioritize Him in the best way that you can, but don’t penalize or punish yourself when the situations in your life cause you to have to adjust your “normal” patterns. God wants us to come to Him, and He meets us there on the couch or in the car or wherever we make time to commune with Him.
