03/04/2025
In talking with one of our young adult leaders recently, I asked the question, “How are you doing in your daily routines?” Her response was, “Every day pretty much just looks like the day before.”
That can sound like a surrender to the monotony of daily life and ritual (which is not what she was implying), or it can actually be a clarion call to that which nourishes and sustains us.
How do you look at your daily life? Boring, dull, lacking in variety and interest? Get up. Go to work. Go home. Do your chores. Eat. Go to bed. Wash. Rinse. Repeat. Day. After. Day. After. Day.
Or do you see the perfunctory daily rituals and routines as channels through which you can experience joy, health, and growth?
A recent study that monitored the habits of married couples discovered what can help determine healthy marriages. The researchers found that only one activity seemed to consistently improve the ability to maintain a stable, happy, long-lasting relationship: simple affection, the embracing or kissing of one’s spouse at the beginning and the end of each day (Norris, The Quotidian Mysteries, 80).
Their conclusion may be nuanced between causation and correlation, but regardless, there is a lesson to be learned. Paul Bosch, the author of the study, determined that “whatever you do repeatedly has the power to shape you, has the power to make you over into a different person—even if you’re not totally `engaged’ in every minute” (idem.).
I wonder if our daily rituals, whether they be a peck on the cheek, reading our Bible, or taking out the trash, can help us discover more joy than apathy. I wonder if daily routines create space in our minds and hearts to imagine, dream, and expand.
Perhaps when Jesus said, “Give us today our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11), He knew that the daily routine of food was more than the provision of nourishment for the body but also for our daily dependence upon God for the nourishment of our soul.
We are to take up our cross daily to follow Jesus (Luke 9:23). The Psalmist describes a daily routine of proclaiming God’s love in the morning and His faithfulness at night (Psalm 92:2). And it was Daniel who “got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously” (Daniel 6:10, ESV).
Boring and mundane, or refreshing and reviving? Quite honestly, the answer is both. Some days, we do better than others. Some days, our rhythms and routines become a bit static and tedious. But just like we don’t stop nourishing our bodies, even though some meals may be less satisfying than others, let’s not stop nourishing our souls when we feel a bit of spiritual malaise.
We press on toward the goal of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:14), whether the sun is shining or the day is gray and cold. When we stick to our daily rituals and routines, we are more likely to encounter those infectious moments of the sun’s rays breaking through the clouds of a Blue Monday when we find it hard to get out of bed.
So, let’s go practice those mundane routines, even if it’s simply a peck on the cheek.
