day 158: Routines

Mondays come and we find ourselves trying to get back into the routine of the week and each day. We all have our own routines and for the most part these are necessary for our forward momentum and predictability for how we will get our work done. It's funny how we will say we don't like these routines for fear that we fall into a rut but for sure a positive routine is better than not having one at all. There is nothing wrong with being seen as someone who others can count on and predict from us what the answer will be, or the course of action, or how to get a hold of us when we are needed. I have always been one where my routine was fairly well established and others could count on me following a similar course of action each day. I am an early morning person and being in the office early goes back to my morning radio disc jockey days. I like to get up before the sun comes up and get my day started when everything and everyone else is still quiet. Before long people who worked for me got to the point that they knew when I would be in the office, or available by phone, or on email. While I did not particularly like my quiet time being interrupted I always felt it was better that others knew when and where I was versus not. So, the early morning was part of of my routine. We all have routines and the more we can keep to them the better it is for our ability to stay focused and for others to know how to work with us. When we are variable in how we work and what we do we can create all kinds of havoc and anxiety in others. In thinking through this idea of routines it can be seen that God instructed many people in the Old Testament to follow their own routines and to be diligent in ensuring that they followed them religiously (pun not intended). There is example after example to follow. In Exodus 29 the instructions were given to the priests on how they were to go about performing ordinations. Listen to this routine: "Each day you must sacrifice a young bull as an offering for the atonement of sin. Afterward make an offering to cleanse the altar. Purify the altar by making atonement for it, make it holy by anointing it with oil. Make atonement for the altar every day for seven days." These verses and others in the Old Testament tell me that God likes routines. He likes that we become set on what it is that we are supposed to do and then we follow through and we perform our duties in such a way that excellence and continuity can be expected. It is also a great metaphor for the lives we are to live. God has given us our purpose to fulfill and he places us in human situations, like our work, to live out and fulfill that purpose. Within that life comes the opportunity to create the routines that can fulfill that purpose and bring Him glory. It begs the question today of what routines have we established and where does He sit within those routines?

Reference: Exodus 29:36-37 (New Living Testament)