The One About Routine

I am a woman of routine.

Without routine, my whole emotional state begins to crumble.

With that, my spiritual health, as well.

From there, the rest is down-hill:

*  My typical health-driven eating habits are nil; opted most often for fast food, because it's just so....so....easy & convenient (lately it's been zipping into Chick-Fil-A for a frosted coffee, oh my!)....

*  It's hard to sneak away to my quiet sit-place with Jesus.

*  Or to create space for the walks I rely on to clear my head, create new messages, and start writing whatever next thing needs writing...

And yet, I am also a woman who travels some little bit.

Routine is constantly disrupted.

When "on the road" there really is no schedule that accommodates my normal get-the-day-going-sequence.

So, little things start to throw me off:

*  I don't sleep well.

*  Social media can leave me self-critical, and consumed with toxic thinking (comparison, mostly...and we know what comparison does, right? Robs us of joy).

*  I'm easily annoyed.

*  Lazy.

*  Self-centered, narcissistic.

And, the days, which can, at times, turn into weeks, are also lived off-kilter.

*  I live by the next thing that drives my crazy schedule...

* ...whatever calls for my attention the loudest.

*  Internal peace is obliterated.

This isn't me complaining.

It isn't me whining.

But, as I sit here this morning to type a new blog, I realize this AS FACT (!):

I thrive best on routine.

In EvErY way ImAgInAbLe!

It's how the Lord has wired me.

But, more than the lack-of-routine, I need the self-discipline of creating a new-normal inside the abnormal, out-of-control-times of life.

I know what I need! And...

 ...only I have the ability to make the time for what I need.

Perhaps you are like me...and your crazy, whirl-wind-cycle of life has you in the same predicament.

So, I drop these words into an empty-blog-space for both of us.

Because the biggest TRUTH for me when it comes to no-routine is that I don't simply just exist to live from day to day, my whole world starts to unravel.

Unraveling takes a long time to fix.

I know.

I have had to rip out stitches, and unravel, big sewing and crochet projects.

Going backwards is not time, energy, or emotionally efficient;

And, sadly, backwards is where I've been heading...

THIS WEEK, THIS Scripture verse dropped into my lap:

This, this right here, just a phrase, caused a little heart comotion:

AS WAS HIS CUSTOM!!!

It's just a little Greek word (etho) translated custom, wont, or habit.

It's only used four times in the New Testament (three times referring to Jesus' habitual lifestyle, and once regarding the apostle Paul).

However, the word has such depth to it.

Basically, it speaks of CHARACTER.

Both Jesus, and Paul, daily leveraged their customary habits of life, and these behaviors were indicative of their CHARACTER!

Those who knew them, knew them by their daily routines.

Routines say A LOT about who I am.

About what is important to me.

Both Jesus and Paul lived their lives "on the road."

My life compares in NO WAY to theirs.

Neither man had a normal.

But both men set an example of finding normal in the abnormal of their everyday.

As a result, every person KNEW THEM at THE HEART-of-their-LIFE level.

Here's what this says to me...this week...this moment...as I sit in an airport (AGAIN) waiting to fly out on a twelve day trip to Israel:

I AM what I make my NORMAL, even in the midst of a NON-NORMAL life.

You will know me by what is important to me.

And, what you see right now is NOT WHO I WANT TO BE.

So, WORD received.

Heart convicted.

And, now...to "have this attitude that was in Christ Jesus" and make it my own...

And, now...to create space in my life for that which I know is critical routine in my everyday...

So...

Before ALL ELSE....

Jesus!