None of our expectations are met 100% of the time. We are interrupted every day and our plans often change, causing us to switch gears quickly. Because we are a people that love control, we generally do not like change, especially sudden change. When big changes or interruptions occur what do we do? How do we cope?
Elizabeth Elliot has some good old fashioned advice for what to do when change comes, just do the next thing. When interruptions come, our normal routines can save us. When we have a normal rhythm to life, a routine that we can just fall into, we do not have to wonder at what we should be doing next.
These daily routines can provide a comfort and help with what to do when our hearts are anxious and our thoughts are scattered. Just doing the next thing gives us a productive direction; we see that life still continues with its necessary work and patterns. It's like bringing your emotions and your mind back to a resting heart rate after a disruptive jolt.
We are living in an unprecedented time, when our entire country and much of the world is having to change their regular daily habits for an unknown length of time due to the threat of the Coronavirus. Our kids have questions, Chris and I have questions, yet we do not stop living our lives. We continue to do what we normally do along with the exceptions that have been imposed on us due to the threat of this virus. Some of our normal outings and gatherings have been canceled and so we are anticipating more time at home.
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| World War II: Family at home in England. |
Some of my children have asked me what we are going to do now? I told them that we will continue to do what we normally do as a family but we will have more time together at home. We will not be living like every day is a perpetual lazy Saturday morning. We will cook and clean, do our school work and yes, we will have more time to be with one another, for better or worse. But we have a rhythm, a hum in our home that we follow. We know what to do next.
There is great purpose in our work and great comfort in our rhythms. If all that we do is to bring glory to God, then we should not question or wonder if washing the dishes or solving math problems or taking out the trash is worthy of our time. The rhythmal heartbeat of our homes have great worth.
This collective slowing down of our culture could help us to recover the beauty of normal rhythms in our homes. Interruptions happen so often that we do not know what the next thing to do should be, we are so used to coming and going that we have fallen into the new norm of rushing off to the next event or appointment. We have become a collective society of dogs chasing after squirrels.
Each family has a calling and commissioning unique unto to itself. Let us go to the One who brought us together into families and ask Him, what are we to be doing in and through our homes? How should we be living our lives together? We need to find our internal heartbeat again.
Brother Lawrence had a mission, a heartbeat for his every day life. He learned that no matter the nature of the task before him, it could and should be done in and with the presence of God. Brother Lawerence observed that “men invent means and methods of coming at God's love, they learn rules and set up devices to remind them of that love, and it seems like a world of trouble to bring oneself into the consciousness of God's presence. Yet it might be so simple. Is it not quicker and easier just to do our common business wholly for the love of him?"
Is our every day routine done in the loving presence of God? We can start small and ask the Lord to help us to put the first things first and in so doing, worship the Lord in the every day moments of our lives. We have a liturgy that we follow in our homes whether we realize it our not.
How would you describe your home-life liturgy? What is your pattern of living and moving and being? Do we have times of reading and listening to the Word? Do we have times to pray to the Lord and to pray for one another? Do we have time to rest and meditate in the day or time to sing and listen to song? Do we have time to share a meal together? Do we have opportunity to bless one another? Are we feeding our own souls so as to better feed those around us?
Chris and I have some steps that we have taken that have helped us to keep the main things the main things in our home. By establishing a regular pattern in our lives we can better identify the external things that threaten to reset our family's internal pulse. We have written down a vision and mission statement for our family. When we are unsure about how to use our time, our vision and mission statement helps us to make decisions. We eat dinner together every night that we are home. We endeavor to have a time of Bible reading and prayer in the morning with whoever is here and we endeavor to have a time of Bible reading and prayer a couple of evenings each week. We go offline for 24 hours every Saturday night. Sundays are sacred - we go to church. This is the scaffolding of our week. Everything else fits in and around these foundational elements. Having a basic regular plan helps to eliminate the emotional and spiritual fatigue that can come with the constant onslaught of options to fill up our time. These norms help to establish an atmosphere wherein we can practice the presence of God with more consistency and peace.
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| Home, Sweet Home by Walter Dendy Sadler |
Just as making a home more useful and hospitable comes with living in the house for a while, understanding what your daily and weekly rhythms should look like comes with living as a family for a little while. Eventually it becomes clear what the needs of the family are, then we turn to the Lord for help with how to meet our needs for ministry, work and rest.
None of this purposeful living will remain over time by gutting it out and forcing change. We desperately need God’s grace for real change to take hold. Let us humbly ask God’s will, knowing that God gives grace to the humble. We know we cannot do anything except by the spirit of the Lord. No might nor power will save us from our bad habits and patterns. Freedom comes by trusting the Spirit of the Lord and by following His leading for our homes. In this individualistic society, we stumble and fall into selfish isolation all too often, missing out on the blessings that come from regular worshipful practices within our communities and families. And so we pray along with the Psalmist, “Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands; yes, establish the work of our hands!” Ps. 90:17
~ Your Fellow Sojourner
