It is amazing how simple it is to break the rhythms of life. Often, in the pattern of things, we began to take the importance of everyday activities for granted. There is an infinite list of examples such as how easy "simple" math is in sixth grade and how tough it becomes after we've been out of school for a few years. Play time sports that are simply fun at 13 can be simply torture at 40 . Even things like a common recipe that we helped our mom with a million times, becomes a challenge to remember just a couple of years later.
It's not that these actions or tasks are any harder than they were a short time ago. It is not that we are less capable of doing them. It is simply that we have fallen out of the habit. Our brains have not lost the ability to complete math problems, but we aren't in the "mode" to tackle the next math test. Our bodies have not deteriorated to a point where running around a gassy field is unhealthy, but the muscles certainly are no longer used to such activity. And the knowledge of the recipe is still as present as it ever was, but the old habit of "keeping it available" has fallen out of use.
This is a universal rule. Things fall apart, not together. And so it is in our lives. As a writer, I can't tell you how many people I have met that say "I used to write . . .wish I had kept it up." But lives get busy, and there are so many activities just waiting to take the spot that others occupy. One of the saddest parts of living in our fallen world is that the good things in life are so often replaced by lesser companions.
It's a sad trade off, to sacrifice ready math skills for the convenience of grabbing a calculator to tally up the check book once a month. Or the sad tendency of friends to get together and decide to "set and talk" rather than enjoy a brisk walk through the park. And to stick the canned biscuits in the oven rather than allowing the family to enjoy the benefit of your mother's treasured biscuit recipe.
Our lives go down in such a way. Saddest of all, this unique ability of human nature to always settle for less, so often finds its way into our spiritual lives. How many millions of Christians have sacrificed their nightly Bible reading to watch the evening news? How often do we waste precious time that we could be communing with our personal Savior by squandering those moments thinking about office politics or some material item that we hope to obtain?
Does this mean we are doomed to Hell? Does the grace of God extend so far that He is willing to overlook deliberate idleness and laziness in His children? Can we still claim to be children of the Highest, when we desire only to give ourselves and our time to the lesser parts of our nature? I don't know those answers.
What I do know, is that because of this giving in we are weaker. Everyday there are "professional" adults that struggle far too long with an embarrassingly simple math problem; there are "healthy" grown men that are forced to run a short distance and must suffer the humiliation of their companions noticing the effort that it took; there are women that "get in the mood to cook" and discover that their children will not have the same quality of food that they enjoyed.
Also there are Christians that find themselves or their loved ones suddenly in a serious situation, only to find that prayers do not come as easily as they once did. And in this way we break the rhythms of life. |
