Monday, January 17, 2005
Routine and other strange thoughts
I am amazed at how much I rely on routine. I wake up at 7:30 to get the boys ready for school. Today my older son was awake at 6, but I was not getting up until 7:30. I needed to drag every second of sleep possible out of the night. Which one of us does not deal well with change? The routine is I feed them, I prepare lunches, I start the coffee, I get the paper, I get clothes out for the boys and nag them to get dressed until they are finally ready, then they have to brush their teeth. From that time until 8:10 they have free time (often not much if any time at all). Then it is on with the winter coats and pants, gloves, mitts, and hoods. Then the boys want to play outside until the bus arrives (anywhere from 5-10 minutes later - but every once in a while it arrives before we are ready). After that I usually can get my own breakfast and take my wife her coffee (if she is not up already) and even read some of the paper before I have to drive my wife to work (usually by 9:00).
Doing this 5 days a week means that when the weekend comes I do not want to get out of bed until at least Monday! But on Saturday I am often up by 10. It is a slow day, but it can get busy. By Sunday night I often wonder where the weekend went.
Routine is great for getting things done and for dealing with the little tasks that face us every day. Routine makes sure that the kids have what they need to get through the day when I send them off to school. However we need to step outside that routine once in a while. It makes the routine fresh if we can break it occassionally. Such as getting away for a conference, or just a holiday and not having to be responsible for the usual things.
Brian McLaren talks about 5 different things as some of the deep spiritual experiences that people have now a days, youth retreats, short term mission trips, some small groups, many one-to-one relationships, and people getting involved in leading or serving. He compares these to Medival or ancient spiritual disciplines, suggesting that these are the ways to reach and impact the new Christians. The first two are specifically about breaking routine, changing your environment and experiencing new things together with other people. The others can do this to a limited extent.
Are these more spiritually formative than regular Bible reading and prayer? He suggests that regular Bible reading and prayer is about achieving or earning your spirituality. Does it leave people feeling guilty for not doing more of it? I understand his point about Bible reading, but I wonder, doesn't it need some place in the new kind of Christian? While getting away can be a great spiritual adventure, should there not be a place in the spiritual disciplines for routine?
Strange thoughts for such a cold strange day.
Doing this 5 days a week means that when the weekend comes I do not want to get out of bed until at least Monday! But on Saturday I am often up by 10. It is a slow day, but it can get busy. By Sunday night I often wonder where the weekend went.
Routine is great for getting things done and for dealing with the little tasks that face us every day. Routine makes sure that the kids have what they need to get through the day when I send them off to school. However we need to step outside that routine once in a while. It makes the routine fresh if we can break it occassionally. Such as getting away for a conference, or just a holiday and not having to be responsible for the usual things.
Brian McLaren talks about 5 different things as some of the deep spiritual experiences that people have now a days, youth retreats, short term mission trips, some small groups, many one-to-one relationships, and people getting involved in leading or serving. He compares these to Medival or ancient spiritual disciplines, suggesting that these are the ways to reach and impact the new Christians. The first two are specifically about breaking routine, changing your environment and experiencing new things together with other people. The others can do this to a limited extent.
Are these more spiritually formative than regular Bible reading and prayer? He suggests that regular Bible reading and prayer is about achieving or earning your spirituality. Does it leave people feeling guilty for not doing more of it? I understand his point about Bible reading, but I wonder, doesn't it need some place in the new kind of Christian? While getting away can be a great spiritual adventure, should there not be a place in the spiritual disciplines for routine?
Strange thoughts for such a cold strange day.
// posted by Eric @ 1:24 PM 
