God Uses Us as Hands and Feet in Cultivating Hearts

There are times when we need to change the pace of life. On occasion, I intentionally take a different route to places like work because it affords me the opportunity to look with fresh eyes at my surroundings. I notice flowers, buildings, and signs that usually go ignored. And when I go “shank’s pony” or the bus I notice the parks and the people. But I dare not take my eyes off the road for long, in fear that I might get lost or miss my stop. Taking a different route to work is a good change in my routine because it enables me to be more observant by engaging my mind in a new way. It helps me shift from an autopilot mode into a more active role with the world. Shaking up my routine allows me to eagerly approach the day with a sense of expectation and appreciation. 

Frankly, taking an alternative route keeps me from falling into a rut or routine. So much in life is about routines. Take the workweek as an example. An average day begins with the alarm clock sounding at the usual hour. A shower typically wakes you up. Regularly scheduled meetings and appointments fill your calendar. Routines such as these keep you on track and help you complete your work. In this sense, routines are useful because they help you achieve your goals and help you accomplish things that matter. Like taking a different route to work, Sundays shake up the routine; yet this day is an important part of life. 

Sundays are still said to be the Lord’s Day. From the moment we rise from our beds, we might begin our worship of God. We prepare for church by praying, meditating, reading Scripture, and getting dressed, but for me not necessarily up. We go to worship, often sitting in the same seat week after week, with expectations of what worship will look like. We have been trained to expect certain routines, certain rituals in our worship. Worship is one of the most basic routines of any church community. Some people attend worship out of habit; some people come with great expectations. But no single worship service is ever the same as another. The routines and rituals of community life, and especially worship, help centre us. They provide a channel through which God works.

Routines cultivate us and prepare us for divine encounters. Paul reminds the church when we read the Epistles that they “are God’s field.” However, divisions in the community pose a major problem among the Corinthians. People fuss and factions form. Their bickering and immature behaviour barely resembles the kind of Christian community that God has called us to be. As God’s field, we are to recognise that the church is made up of different kinds of people with varying talents and views. Some are called to plant seeds. Others are called to water the seeds. But regardless of the specific calling, God has chosen to dwell within us and work through us. There are a rich variety of talents and resources in any church community, and God uses us as hands and feet in cultivating hearts to be receptive to God’s word. 

Our routines become an opportunity for God to speak and to use us. Routines give us the chance to plant and water seeds, while watching God provide the growth. When some of the early churches divided, they were acting childish, as “infants in Christ.” Routines in Christian community help us mature and become a “spiritual people.” The maturing process takes work and dedication. Routines and rituals help cultivate fertile ground for God to plant seeds in our lives and then help those seeds grow and blossom into beautiful fruits. What we experience through our routines will challenge us because there will be times when we go through our rituals feeling like we have experienced little. Then there will be moments when great things happen during our rituals. 

We will experience “aha” moments, which turn ordinary times into special occasions. These moments are to be cherished and celebrated. We live for these special moments, but we must not get discouraged when they seem infrequent or non-existent. We are to guard against falling into a rut. Ruts happen when our routines and rituals become hollow and meaningless. Hard work and faithfulness keep us on track and engaged, even when our time feels ordinary. We can’t take the routines out of life, but we can guard against routines taking the life out of us. Routines and rituals are tools that provide us with needed stability, which we desperately desire because we live in a world where chaos abounds.