Happy Autumn Readers!

I’m back!

I hope your September was a peaceful one. Mine raced by, but I got some much needed down time for studying, praying, and practicing new habits.

I learned in August, while planning our Ladies Gathering event at our church, that I would get the opportunity to speak. The theme of our event was, “back in the routine” and we were to talk about our personal day to day walk with Christ. 

To prepare for this event, I spent much of September reading a couple of new books another blogger had suggested and studying the Bible. I’ll leave the book recommendations below. 

I’ve learned so much from my past month of studying and have incorporated some new habits into my routine. I wanted to share my speech with you all here. Let me know what you think and what your daily habits look like as a follower of Christ.

Routine

I love routines. I love organization. I love making plans. 

I also love to be in control. When things don’t turn out the way I planned I get very grouchy, just ask my sister. 

So when the theme of Routines was suggested for our women’s gathering I was excited to say the least. 

And then when they asked me if I wanted to speak about my routine, I tried, and failed hard, to humbly accept. I was chomping at the bit.

So here we are, all gathered together, all in different seasons of our life, in all ages, in different Kingdom Journeys-some have been walking a long time with Jesus, others have just begun. 

So what does a “Christian” routine look like?

This may be another type A personality trait that you can make fun of me for later, but I kinda like homework. And so to prepare for this little speech I did some research.

First I mapped out my own daily routine.

How many here set an alarm to wake up in the morning?

Okay, now how many set five?

And how many hit snooze on all five of them and wake up begrudgingly on the last one.

Me too.

I’m sure my morning routine matches a lot of yours. I wipe the sleep from my eyes as I check the notifications on my phone on the way to the bathroom.

I’m pretty good about walking the dog every morning. If I don’t she gets pretty rowdy. I shower. Make breakfast. Absolutely make coffee. And then head to work. 

The rest of the day doesn’t get much more exciting. Work, check email, complete tasks for the day, go home for lunch, wait for the clock to strike 5, go home, check social media, eat dinner, sleep.

Now, you’re probably wondering where in that routine does God come into play? This is a Christian routine after all. Well I try to include God in many aspects of my routine, but what I really wanted to find out was if my routine really resembled a “Christian” walk with God so I turned to the perfect example: Jesus himself.

What was Jesus’ routine? And how can I model my life after his example?

I started my research in blog posts, read a couple good books, and then most importantly went straight to the source: The Bible.

The 4 gospels tell us a lot about the life of Jesus. In this instance I was reading in Matthew Chapter 4. This is my understanding of the daily routine of Jesus.

So, not in any particular order, the first thing I noticed was Jesus walked everywhere. When you walk everywhere you have to take life at a slower pace. You really can’t rush, much unlike our current society where we feel pressured to rush everything.

I bet even some of you right now are thinking about the next thing you have to accomplish on your to-do list. But Jesus was present in each moment. He didn’t feel a need to rush, but took each moment just as it came (remember Jairus and the bleeding woman?)

Being present and in the moment is not a strong skill of people today. In my research I read that the average iphone user touches their phone 2,617 times a day! And our average attention span is 8 seconds, for context a goldfish has a 9 second attention span.

Jesus was bombarded with people everyday, and he was patient and loving with each one of them. He didn’t let life’s distractions get in the way of relationships with people. How often do we really listen when we ask someone how they are?

Next I noticed Jesus went to synagogue. This was a weekly priority that he carved out time for. And he didn’t just attend to listen, he also taught and engaged in conversation with people. This meant that he had to study scripture, he had to be aware of important issues facing the Jewish community, he fellowshipped with other believers.

How easy is it for us to forget to read our Bibles daily? Or only get to church on major holidays? Or replace studying scripture with listening to only podcasts of other people’s opinions. Not that podcast listening is bad, I absolutely love listening to podcasts and youtubers, but spending time in your Bible with your thoughts on the scriptures is so crucial that Jesus did this (and he was the Word)

Jesus’ routine also included work. Before he started his ministry he was a carpenter, and during his ministry he healed countless people. I’m sure that was not only physically exhausting but emotionally too-he was fully human after all. His work took effort and care, he had to have empathy and compassion. 

I don’t know about you, but most of the time at work I zone out completely. There is very little effort or care, and when I have to deal with customers, compassion is sometimes the last thing on my mind. 

I noticed also that Jesus made hospitality a priority in his routines. He had the heart of a servant after all. Remember when he fed the 5,000? He made sure people were comfortable. Well, maybe not the Pharisees. 😆

In my research I came across an amazing explanation of hospitality in 1 Kings 10:4-5

It reads, “When the queen of Sheba saw all the wisdom of Solomon and the palace he had built, the food on his table, the seating of his officials, the attending servants in their robes, his cupbearers, and the burnt offerings he made at the temple of the Lord, she was overwhelmed.”

I’m sure the 5,000 were overwhelmed with all the food that Jesus was able to provide them. 

How often in our daily routines do we overwhelm people with our hospitality. It doesn’t have to be extravagant like Solomon, but imagine walking into someone’s office, someone you work with everyday, and they offer you a cup of coffee that they personally make you and maybe even a piece of coffee cake to accompany it. And their space is inviting and warm. They are genuinely happy you dropped by, even if it was to talk about a mistake they made. That would definitely overwhelm me.

And speaking of being overwhelmed by such a small gesture, something else I noticed about Jesus’ routine was that he enjoyed life’s little pleasures. We often read about him sitting down to dinner at a friend’s house. He even attended parties. Remember the wedding where he turned water into wine? Again, he was present in each moment. Listening and joining conversations. 

I get a sick feeling in my stomach every time I read about Martha and Mary. The idea is to enjoy the party you plan, not worry about all the small little distractions that could happen. Jesus encouraged Martha to sit at his feet and just listen. To just abide in his presence. 

It’s me Jesus, I’m a Martha for sure! 

But Jesus enjoyed life.

When was the last time you sat down to a meal and actually tasted your food? Felt each flavor as you chewed and swallowed. When was the last time you laughed, like a deep belly laugh? Or listened intently as your child told you about their day at school. Or just slowly drank your coffee as you admired the green grass and blue sky outside. Or snuggled deep inside the covers on a Saturday morning without looking at your phone?

Now let’s get into the real nitty gritty of Jesus routines.

Jesus rested. Remember when he fell asleep in the boat during the hurricane! Well that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but I’m sure it felt that way to the disciples. Jesus trusted his Father and had such great faith, that he could sleep during a storm. I usually panic at the first signs of snow while I’m driving Or even when my boss says, “we need to talk”. It’s hard to rest when you are in a constant state of worry. Can we trust God enough to rest during our storms? 

Jesus also observed the Sabbath (maybe not legalistically like the Pharisees would have wanted) but he was a Jew and so he did rest during Sabbath. When was the last time you took a whole day and dedicated it to rest and worship of God? That pesky to-do list is always looming.

A book I was reading explained the Sabbath as a “once a week celebration of all that is good in God’s world.” When you rest do you notice all the things that are good and mentally connect that with God? It’s hard to slow down like that.

Finally, Jesus made it routine to go into solitude and pray. He spent time alone with God. He worshiped him, he listened to him.

It’s easy to make prayer another checklist. Requesting items, asking for guidance or signs, petitioning on behalf of others. But Jesus made his prayer time intimate. He shut out all other distractions and just sat with God. It was a time to melt into God’s presence. 

I’ve learned so much from my studying of Jesus’ routine. So much that I do- and want- to implement into my own daily routine.

For example, I’ve started to incorporate a no phone touching as soon as I wake up. I’m a night prayer, but I’m trying to start my mornings by waking up and saying a super short prayer, usually because I’m still half asleep.

I love doing prayer walks. You just walk and talk to God, about anything and everything. 

I’m working on my work style and trying to love people like Jesus. Customer service is hard you guys!  😆

That thing about overwhelming people with hospitality, that’s something I’d like to add to my routine. I’m not sure yet how, but there are many women at my church who do it well and I can learn from. 

I try to read my Bible at least 5 times a week, but am definitely not religious about it. I miss more than I’d like to admit, but Jesus studied the scriptures and I need to to!

Finally, I’m going to try to slow down, enjoy the little things, and take a full day of rest where I consciously celebrate all the good of God’s great creation.

Being a type A person can be challenging when you want to put everything in tidy little check boxes and hurry the day away completing each little task and not making room for things that aren’t in your control.

But I want to be a follower of Jesus more than all of that. And so I want to imitate his routine. And in the end it really is pretty simple. 

What is the greatest commandment? To love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. To pray, to listen to him, to abide in his presence, to rest in his love, to study his words, have faith to rest even during the storms.

And the second commandment? To love your neighbor as yourself. To slow down. Enjoy the moment. Have compassion and empathy with others, practice overwhelming hospitality, put effort into your work, fellowship with others, especially at church with other believers.

Routines, Christian Lifestyles, Kingdom Journey’s. Whatever you call it, just love God and love others and everything else will fall into place-no checklist required. But if you want a checklist that won’t hurt either. 😁 

Blog Recommendation:

The Routines & Habits of Jesus