Routine and Rhythm

Sometimes I'm glad the Ritalin Revolution happened after I finished school. Looking back, I'm about 110% sure the sundry educational establishments of the Jack C. Hays Consolidated Independent School District would have diagnosed me with Attention Deficit Disorder and pumped me so many pills into me that I would have been flying higher than Shaggy and Scoob in the Mystery Van...

I mention this because I find myself trying something new - a routine. Normally, routine agrees with me about as well as a soggy Jumbo Jack, but as I (slowly) mature, I feel that this may be something I need right now. Due to bad habits, the busyness of each day, and just-plum-tuckered-out-ness, I've felt disconnected from God the last few months. It's not that He's not there - He's always there - I have chosen not to interact with Him most of the time. I think the word for that is "sin." As a result of disconnecting from God, my life lacks a rhythm of grace and virtue, and a rhythm of grace and virtue is what I'm made for. When I'm loving people and honoring God out of an organic outflow from my heart, I know it's God in me, to His glory, and I feel His favour and fellowship.

So, as a baby step toward regaining this rhythm, I am adopting a routine of prayer at four times over the course of the day - Morning, Noon, Evening, and Close of Day. The Book of Common Prayer's Daily Devotional (pp. 136-139) provides the liturgical structure and content for my prayer times, and I added Psalm 1 and a Rich Mullins song to personalize them. I also set aside time for Supplication, Thanksgiving, and Worship. Since it's late at night, I'll end with the last line of the Evening Prayer:

Lord Jesus, stay with us, for evening is at hand and the day is past; be our companion in the way, kindle our hearts, and awaken hope, that we may know you as you are revealed in Scripture and the breaking of bread. Grant this for the sake of your love. Amen.