Reflection: Habits of duty

We’re stepping into the shoes of Old Testament Israelites, again, where bread and thanks, sacrifice and eating rituals merge. Without these God-initiated rules would they have grown lax in giving thanks? Without a doubt, these routines and metaphors paved pilgrim pathways for forgetful people to worship well.

Is that what healthy habits and rituals do for you?

Help to put you in the flow of God’s grace? *

I used to love watching my dad shave. An intimate little moment. He’d put the back of his electric shaver against my cheek, and we’d share the buzz. He told me later that because shaving was a ‘daily’ he designated it a time to pray for family—particularly for a wayward nephew. Myself, I am attentive to prayer for particular people in the shower.

It’s not like we need to go establishing more ceremonies and rituals. Our lives are full of ‘dailies’ and calendar events (‘Sabbaths, feast days and new moons’). By intentionally using these to ‘turn to Christ’ we keep our priorities in focus with him and that keeps us persevering in faith. Just maybe, that’s how saying grace over a meal began?

“You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in the ink.” (G. K. Chesterton, ‘Orthodoxy’)

Healthy habits of duty put us in the flow of God’s grace. How about yours?

Prayer:

Sweet is the work, my God, my King,
To praise your name, give thanks, and sing,
To show your love by morning light,
And talk of all your truth at night.      (verse 1, hymn by Isaac Watts)

*See Donald Whitney, “Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life.”