New Routines

So for the last few weeks I have been trying to adjust to new routines, somewhat successfully. Before starting at the church I was working at a warehouse and my work hours were 7:30am to 3:30pm Monday to Friday. While the 7:30 am portion was way early and hard to get used to, I loved being done by 3:30 every day. The other good thing about it, was even though I would press snooze multiple times each morning, eventually I would get myself out of bed knowing that I had to be at work by 7:30.

Well now my schedule is a little more flexible which is both good and bad. I refuse to set my alarm on a daily basis for 6am but due to my husband needing/wanting to go to the school library to work on his thesis project we have been setting it for around 7am. But without the need to be somewhere by a specific time, the snooze button is winning many mornings - we are pressing it now more each morning than we did at 6am. But once we finally get out of bed the new routines have been nice.

Because I know have time in the mornings, which is my preferred exercise time, I have been running with the dog on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday mornings. I don't run far, long or that fast, but I have been running. And Monday, Wednesday and Fridays when my husband is running the dog I have been doing some abdominal work outs.

After working out I have found taking some time for a devotional is also a great way to cool down. I have tried many different personal bible study routines over the years and lately have found what used to work for me to be extremely difficult to follow. As a teenager and in college I would just read a few chapters of the Bible every night. A few years ago I started reading either Word in Season or Upper Room each evening. At first I found these reflections very nice. However over the course of seminary I started to have issues with them. The one page reflections were just too surface level for me. I wanted to dive deeper into the text, to learn some background to the culture that the gospel/letter/prophet was writing to or learn why certain words are used and not others. So as a result, sticking to a devotional (they are excellent for many people, I am in no way knocking them) I had a hard time sticking to reading them.

So now I have invested into the Interpretation series by John Knox press. I'm currently working my way through Matthew. Each day I have been reading a small portion of the gospel, normally just a few verses, and then reading the commentary. I have enjoyed it thus far, to dive each day into some gospel text that is especially not the text I'm preaching on that week. My only complaint is that I'm so used to wanting to finish books in a short period of time, that I have to stop myself from moving on to more sections, so that it is a time for reflection and not work.

Also on the top of routine is getting used to the drive to Georgetown. My drive is about 45 minutes without traffic and fairly easy. But my previous commute was less than 15 minutes. This change has lead to so lull time in the car. But thank God for Audio books. I'm currently listening to Amy and Isabelle by Elizabeth Stout. I'm not sure if I would listen/read it otherwise, but it was on of the few books on CD that the library had in stock that I have not already read that seemed interesting.

All and all I'm enjoying my new routines, but it is also hard trying to get used to them knowing that in a little over a month when we move to the parsonage, many of these routines will change.