Routine

(Exodus 3:3-7 KJV) And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.  Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God.  And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows. 

There are so many interesting things about the man Moses that it would behoove one to study his life and learn. On one hand he did things that would indicate that he was just an ordinary man. On the other hand he did things that showed that he was a very brilliant and complicated man. However, his brilliance was often hidden by his humility.

I suppose the thing that made Moses look so ordinary was his routineness. At first glance it appears that everything he did was routine. In many cases when one’s life is governed by such routine, it eliminates their daily creativeness which is the twin brother of hope. Hope is fueled by creativeness and without it one becomes robotic in nature and will miss his God given potential.

Everyone looks at routine in a different light. Some find security in routine, whereas others find boredom in it.

After reading her daily devotion the other day, my wife came in the room and informed me that according to the writer of her devotional book…routine could be a God. My response was, “Discipline and routine are very similar so we need to be sure which one we are talking about. We should not put everything in the same category even though it looks the same.”

After all, everything about the factory worker, the teacher, the airline pilot and the farmer is routine, but that does not necessarily mean that they have made a God out of it.

Could it be that the person who wrote the devotional book has a problem with living a disciplined life and therefore they justify it by saying that routine can be a God?

Perhaps a better explanation of routine would be that it is the first step toward learning discipline. This was certainly the case with me because I had no discipline in my life at all until I was forced into learning routine.

This also seemed to be the case with Moses, Elisha, David and the disciples. Each of them had to first learn routine because it was necessary for their future life of discipline.

Routine is not a God.

Father,

I realize that to some boredom is spelled, r-o-u-t-i-n-e. Help us Lord to see that routine that is placed in Your hands will ultimately be to our benefit. Father, show us how to enjoy this first step of discipline, knowing it is for our good.

Amen