Have you ever done something for many, many years? When you've done things for a long time, you create habits and ways of doing things. Your body learns to run on autopilot. You may have experienced it before. Have you ever driven somewhere that you go to frequently and not been sure about the journey there? Something else was on your mind and muscle memory just took over. Voila! You were at your destination. Doing things over and over again makes an indentation on us that lasts a while.
For the past 16 ½ years I have driven 5-7 days per week to the college for work. Monday, I will take another path to work. God has called me to serve His people in His ministry. Rather than traveling south to the college, I'll head north to the Port of Manatee for my first day as Executive Director/Chaplain at Anchor House Mission. I first learned of the mission at our church as it was highlighted as a mission we support regularly. At that time, I had no idea that God was threading a needle for me to later serve Him at Anchor House.
My point to all of this is that after we do something for a long time it's easy to get in routine. Change is hard. We are creatures of habit and change can be tough. It takes us out of our routine and our routine offers safety.
But, in our routine God is still at work. Too often our routine muffles God's call and we fail to recognize God's little nudges to action. The question is are we willing to listen and move off of autopilot of our routine? I'm not trying to say you need to leave your job and enter the mission field. Your call may be to serve at Downtown Ministries or student ministries or Anchor House. It may be that you are called to share Jesus with a co-worker or pray with a homeless person or simply do a random act of kindness. We should live each day as if we are on a mission. Our mission is to Love God and Love His children (Matthew 22:37-40).
When you love something you pay attention to it and care for it. To love God you honor Him with how you live the life He has given you. You listen to Him. You love what He loves. "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16).
God is on the move. Shake the routine. Be open. Be ready. Be on mission.
Be blessed and be a blessing,
Matt
Everyday presents to opportunities to be a witness of God's love to others. Even going in a new direction.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree. But it's easy to slip into routine and ignore those opportunities.
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