Those Little Routines
By Dan Etheridge

I don't know about you, but I have my routines. These are simple little rules in life that I've developed over the years that seem to make the world a better place. It's not like I'm an obsessive or anything, it's just that for me it's nice to clean up your kitchen before you cook a new meal. I'm pretty sure many of you know what I mean - sitting down to have a nice brew is a lot more satisfying and settling if you're lounge is a bit tidy.

Most of my little routines are pretty logical. You don't sleep in your bed till you've put the sheets on it. You can't have a barbeque without lighting the coals, you can't spend any money till you get paid, you can't get going as a Christian until you've been healed, forgiven, released, you shouldn't eat when you're not hungry (I always have an issue with that last one).

The list seems fairly acceptable. They are all things we know and put into practice in our lives on a daily basis. But wait. What's that second to last one again? You can't get out there and serve as a real 'successful' Christian until you've dealt with your past hurts and issues. I don't know if you've ever thought this before, but a little voice always seems to say to me:

"I can't offer to pray for him as I struggle with the same issues that he needs help with"
 
It seems to me that I'm so concerned with waiting to be healed, restored, mended and forgiven that I often don't do anything but dwell on all that bad stuff. My faith turns more into a personal search for a load of individual life-changing encounters with God rather than a journey in which I experience God by following Jesus' call to discipleship. I'm not saying that experiencing God's spirit in powerful and life changing ways is bad, but that God promises to do so much more in our lives as we step out and live our faith - lives dedicated to serving Him and loving others.

Check out Isaiah. It's the classic 'Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen…' passage from Isaiah 58. A passage we use to challenge ourselves when our faith becomes nothing more than ritualistic singing, or routine practises - a warning to not lose the heart behind our worship. The passage primarily exerts us to recognise that true forms of worship are actions that bring glory to God: actions that make a stand against injustice (Isaiah 58v6), that feed and provide shelter for the poor (v7) and lives that refrain from malicious talk (v9).

However, when we check the passage a bit more closely, Isaiah (speaking on God's behalf), reveals that it is when we 'loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free' (v6) and when we 'share our food with the hungry and provide the poor wanderer with shelter' (v7) it is then that God promises 'your light will break forth like the dawn and your healing will quickly appear' (v8). The promises don't end there. As a result of doing these things, living justly, loving mercy and walking humbly with God, He says He will be with us, making us Holy and protecting us: 'your righteousness will go before you and the gory of the Lord will be your rear guard' (v8).

If we turn to the New Testament we see a similar process at work. When Jesus chose the twelve disciples he didn't seek out the religiously or morally perfect people in a kind of 'Disciple Idol' contest. Famously, Matthew was a tax collector when he was called by Jesus - a profession that would have incurred as much public disdain and rejection as it would today! (Matt 9v9f). Jews would have hated Matthew as the money he collected from the Jewish community that he was a part of would have gone straight into financing the furtherance of the all powerful Roman Empire. In short Matthew's job served to keep the Jews under the authority of the Romans.

The model Jesus employed seems to be a bit similar to on-the-job training. None of the disciples were perfect when he recruited them. None of them were perfect when he sent them out to compliment what he was doing (Matt 10). And judging by Paul's letter to the Galatians there were major issues amongst the disciples in the first decades of the early church. However, Jesus still called them, gradually changed them and God managed to achieve incredible things through them and their willingness to follow Him.

Perhaps one of the things that God says through passages like Isaiah 58 is that it is only when we get out there and serve, when we live out the Christian life with our whole lives and begin to love others unconditionally that we meet with God and experience more of Him. In effect it's when we put others first and try to love them with all that we have that we will be healed, changed and released. For some this might be a journey that seems to last a whole lifetime. For most there may times of amazing break through that see you encouraged and drawn closer to God. However, even in these times it is God who calls us out of ourselves to serve others so that he may continue to develop, mould and heal us.

Many theologians from the 'developing world' and many other Christians who've visited some of the most impoverished places on our planet have expressed the belief that God is present in the eyes, faces and lives of the poor. This isn't about amazing church services and hours of waiting for God to release us, but about the God who longs for His presence, power and love to be known amongst those who society considers the last, the least and the lost.

Amazingly it's as we serve and love others that we put ourselves in a place where God can use us, change us and meet with us. By serving and loving others not only do we seek to be and show Jesus to other people with our words and actions, but also Jesus often reveals himself to us in the process.

This isn't about being a bit gung ho with our problems, addictions and hurts. I mean, if you've struggled with drug abuse, eating disorders or all manner of stuff it's sensible to avoid putting yourself back in those places until you are healed and restored to the extent that you won't be tempted to go back on your commitments to get rid of those addictions. However, when and if we do feel it is right to go back our testimony can be so much more powerful.

I guess the encouragement is that God calls us all to certain things now. He calls us to love and serve the poor and the marginalized -those society considers the last, the least and the lost - whether we believe we've still got issues or not. Just imagine what kind of effect Christians would have in the world if this model of meeting with God and being restored by God as we served and befriended those society looks down upon became one of our little personal and church life routines. I reckon we'd see a lot more people having their brokenness dealt with inside and outside the church.

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