Rhythms and Complacency

I love rhythms.
I think most people like some sort of rhythm, even if it is a rhythm of spontaneity.

I have a normal time of waking up,  I have a normal breakfast time, place to eat and people I eat with. I tend to go for the same foods, the same beverages, and when I find something enjoy, I need a good reason  to try something else. I have a system of keeping my life organized so that I know what to expect and can plan for tomorrow, next week or next year.

Life in Israel has shown me a little about the feasts that God told his people to celebrate. Two seasons of celebration. On in the spring starting with Passover, and one in the fall starting with Rosh HaShanah, Now we are back to 'normal' days. They actually have a word or a phrase referring to the 'times after the holidays'.  The time when life starts to fall back into the normal rhythms of a work week (however than be defined here), schools start classes again, and life begins to fall into an expected rhythm.

I have heard the example of life being a combination of 'mountain-top' and 'valley-low' experiences, yet the way I experience it, it isn't always climbing or running down, there is a lot of flat land to cover too. And maybe the life on the flat-ground; the places where there is nothing really spectacular, and nothing really tragic, where our true character and endurance can be strengthened. The times when it is easy enough to do it on my own, not 'spectacular' enough that all would automatically recognize it as a miracle of God, and not lonely or hard enough to signal my heart that I need to turn to God or I'll never make it through.

Life likes the flat grounds. Even in real life, road, trails and natural routes like to follow the flat ground - it is easier to walk a mile of flat ground around the mountain than to go half a mile straight over it. In life - we get through the valley and aim for the places we know what to expect. We breath a sigh when vacation ends and life returns to normal. We settle in when school starts back up, as difficult as the change is, or tiring a Monday morning, we appreciate the 'getting back to normal'.

So rhythms - on the flat ground, the rhythms that give shape to our days weeks and years. They show a lot about what is important and how who we are. What are our priorities and what do we value? Some of the rhythms of my day and week I wish that I had better control of, getting homework done so I can sleep on time, making sure I can spend time in the word of God, being intentional about spending time with people.

There is a temptation to let my life fill up with rhythms that are so predictable that I don't keep time open for the unexpected and the time to really grow in faith and understanding.  Yes, on flat ground we could cover twenty miles in a day, but you'll learn a lot more about yourself, the people around you, and the path you are on, if you only go ten.

The Bible study I go to starts out usually by asking what has gone on in the past  two weeks, what have we learned, or what has God been showing us. Thinking about those questions has made me realize that the flat ground is an interesting time where there is potential for great benefit, but also potential for none at all.

One aspect of the rhythms in my life is a rhythm of 'distractions' - things that fill my time with really little to no benefit on long-term goals or present situations. The tv shows that I enjoy, a game I play on the computer, the logic puzzles, or pleasure reading are not 'bad', but if I were to let them take up all my time, they would be considered as such.  On a mountain-top or a valley-low, these could very easily be dropped out, but it is on the flat ground where they fill up my time. On the 'flat ground' I can let complacency take lead because it isn't hard work, I can let myself slip into a rhythm that doesn't allow time for important things.

On the other hand, 'flat ground' could be a time of benefit. It can be a time where, if I am intentional, I can learn a rhythm that supports what is important to me, and values what I want to value. Maybe it is the little things, like getting up a half hour earlier and spending a little time in God's word, or maybe it is not checking facebook another time before I start my homework. Or sticking to going to be on time instead of watching that one episode.

God gives us seasons and places to which he has called us. Each has it's own rhythms and pace. But God is bigger than the situation we are in, and as children of God it is to our benefit that we can see a the bigger perspective. Maybe the best rhythm for me is to go ten miles a day well, than 20 miles fast, anyways God never said that the winner was the one who went the furthest, just to run this race well.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. - Hebrew 12:1-2

"I set them as markers of days, months and year..."

I can imagine God saying words like that as he gently explains the way he created his universe.
The sun, the moon, the stars, they have their purposes and they set in rhythm the times and seasons. The only frame of time that we follow that is not explained by these heavenly bodies is the week.  And yet I feel as if today, the week might be the most important rhythm that we follow. Meeting are scheduled by the week. Everyone knows when the weekend comes and the when is will be over, we get excited about long weekends, or special weeks.

"Six days you shall work and on the seventh you shall rest" we all like a day of rest, and honestly we know we are better with it.  Yet I have noticed that too often we let the chaos of the world seep into our sacred times and spaces.

God created the world out of nothing, but not just the complete absence of substance, but complete and utter chaos.  I imagine it to be like when a storm comes through and reports use the phrase 'completely wiped out' 'nothing left', but there is something there, but what is left is complete chaos and unusable in any way shape or form. It is worse than just starting with a blank slate because you have got to know what to do with the mess that is left.  Maybe it is that there was literally no matter, and in addition to that the laws of nature and the way that we know life to function were also in complete disarray. (*I am not a scientist and have no way of proving stuff like this, so please take it with a large grain of salt)

And with his very own words God called order out of the chaos, separating the water and the land, the sky and the earth, each animal from the next. He separated spaces and he separated times and it was the way that it was suppose to be.

"On the seventh he rested from all his work" he not only rested, he blessed that day and made it holy, set apart for rest. And this too was order out of the chaos.

Six days were created to create and the seventh was created to rest. I find myself all too often taking my rest while I ought to be creating and then end up creating in the space where I ought to be resting. I take breaks or let myself get distracted, telling myself deadlines are further away. I putter away, until time gets around and to accomplish the things I need to I end up sacrificing the day of rest.

The rhythms and cycles of days, weeks, months and years, is one of the ways that God brings order to chaos. And something inside seems that when we start to disregard these ways, in a subtle way we are telling God that our ways are better than his. That to rest now, or to work then is better than the way that he set it to be.

I do understand that it is impossible for everyone to strictly follow all the rules that the Pharisees laid out, and by not mean do I EVER want to advocate or go back to that. That seems to be equally chaotic as not doing it at all. Living in Israel this year, there are three different 'holy days' and they are celebrated by the three major religions, it is slightly complicated at first, but after a little, it becomes a rhythm and each one falls into a rhythm of creating and resting.

I am going to do my best to create what God has set for me to create so that I can truly rest when God has set time to rest.