I wanted to write some more about routine. I talked about it last week, and got some interesting feedback on that post. I wanted to talk about it on a very practical level. It’s another way that routine could be a bad thing. Remember last week I said there are some situations in life where routine is good. It’s good to have a rhythm to your life. It’s good to have things you can rely on. On the flip side of that, if everything in our life is predictable – it’s all routine – we will stagnate.

Life will become like the water in tire swing. At first you might not even notice it. Then, while you’re swinging one day, you spill a little bit of water on you, and notice it’s kind of gross. You try to get the water out, but it’s a tire – so it’s extremely difficult. It’s very hard to turn a tire upside down fast enough to get All the water out. There will still be some stinky water left in there. And before you know it, it will rain again, and fill the tire back up with water which will seem to bring life to the old water, but soon the old water takes over and makes the new water smell.

But what about our God who never changes? True. God never changes. But (hopefully) God is always changing us to be more like him. It’s when we stop changing, or stop allowing God to change us that we stagnate. Yes, God takes the old and makes it new. That’s what he does. But that’s not our tendency. Our tendency is to stick to what we know. We cling to what has worked in the past, even thought the magic is gone. It worked at one time, so if we keep doing it, and keep trying hard enough, it has to, it absolutely has to work again. Right?

It doesn’t. It rarely does.

So, as we approach our relationship with God this week, and how we respond to him worship, maybe we need to get out of the routine of what’s worked in the past. Maybe we need to keep the tire from filling up with water in the first place. Maybe we need to keep it moving in new directions as much as possible so that the rain can’t fill it

“Sing to him a new song;
play skillfully, and shout for joy.” Psalm 33:3