Routine

I was listening to a cd of Bill Johnson yesterday, who is a pastor out in California. He was discussing the spirit of religion that has beaten Christians down until they are "locked into routines without purpose." That phrase has really stuck with me. When I was telling Johnny about the sermon last night, I started to qualify Johnson's statement by saying, "Of course, I know life has a certain amount of routine..."

Really? Maybe a better word is rhythm. Every year in Oklahoma, we have spring, summer, fall, and winter. It is a rhythm to the year, but there is nothing routine about our seasons. Spring will come sometime soon, but this past week, in our "winter," we have had 70-degree days, ferocious winds, and rains without storms because there was no cold air hitting the moisture to make the nasty stuff. Every morning the sun comes up, but sometimes there are clouds, sometimes not. The temperature is always different; I am always different. Today I stepped outside to watch my daughter's bus wait for her, then move on (because she missed it AGAIN), and the air was damp and alive with a grey, hazy light. It hasn't been light at bus-catching time for months. Is this routine? No, it is rhythm, and each moment is a fresh delight.

I'm glad for the rhythm, the feeling of sameness. Humans like the anchor of "normal." We are comforted by the familiar. But our God, the Creator of the infinitely-detailed, surprising universe, does not condemn us to routine. He has made us creative like Him. I pray that today you would open your eyes to see His beauty around you, to feel the rhythm of the earth, and the Creator of the world in the soles of your feet, your fingertips, even tingling your ears. May the creativity of your spirit wed to His redeem the routine of your day.