Breaking The Habit of Routine With Intentionality

I climb behind the wheel of my red Subaru and take off driving. The radio station I have preset struggles to compete with the air blowing from the vents of my car, as I switch it to cold blast level two, just the way I like it. A familiar tune starts playing; and I hum the words to the song, not realizing I’ve begun singing along.

It’s another part of my routine.

A flash of houses blur past as I press on the gas, not bothering to look at the speed limit sign or my speedometer. I drive this road every day so I already know that it’s 45MPH, there’s no point in looking at a sign I’ve seen a million times. I swallow a few gulps of the Crystal Light caffeine drink I have in the Lilly Pulitzer cup I use every day and take a few bites out of a protein bar. I’ve eaten this breakfast combination as though my life depends on it since ninth grade.

It’s another part of my routine.

I’ve become quite comfortable in it- my routine. It’s a safe comfort and a constant stability when all else feels uncomfortable and inconsistent to give me a sliver of sanity in the unknown insanities of life. The repetition of actions eventually make me immune to the fact that I’m actually performing them- deviating is no longer an option.

There are those who thrive in change. They order a different meal at every restaurant, and they crave crazy adventures and new things. Then there are those who thrive in routine. They order the same meal (chicken tenders and fries) at the same restaurant they eat out at, and they crave what they’re used to. I’m the latter, if you haven’t noticed; but I think we all have tendencies to cling to what’s known and familiar.

Whether you do things for a love of change or do things for love of a routine, the two opposites pose the same question:

When are we going to stop doing things less out of habit and more out of intent?

If we are always doing things from a place of comfort, the comfort becomes a routine, and the routine becomes a habit. We become indifferent to things we once found exciting and had a passion for doing because we’re just going through the motions- failing to seek opportunities to be intentional.

Being intentional looks like making a driven, determined effort to go out of your way in the middle of the normality of life. When I do things from a place of habit, I neglect to see the purpose in the task; and therefore, the purpose I’m given in performing that task.

Living intentionally exercises our purpose while living in habit restricts our potential.

I think the easiest area to neglect and form all-too-comfortable habits in is our relationship with God.

Like when your eyes skim over the words written in the Bible without any actual comprehension. Or when the prayers of repeated phrases are strung together and you don’t realize until you catch yourself saying it a second time in the same prayer- yep, I’m calling that out too. Or the time you sit in the church pew (same one every Sunday, of course) as the praise team sings and your mind drifts to the food you’re going to eat after. At the end of the song, you realize you never paid attention to a single word sung.

These are all places we’re prone to feel secure in our routine and disregard performing them with joyful intent.

I came to the realization of this as I was reading the book of John. It’s a book of the Bible I’ve grown up listening to sermons of, and the first verse I can remember memorizing as a little girl was John 3:16. I never studied the book on my own, so one day I decided to start reading.

John chapter one begins with John’s testimony, which starts with an interaction he had with a few men who ran up asking him, “Who are you?” The typical answer, formed out of habit, would be your name and maybe where you’re from. However, John answers, “I am not the Christ,” which is a pretty unusual response. Rather than John tell the men about himself, he took the common question as an opportunity to tell others about Jesus and who He was.

When I read this, I asked myself the question: How often do I do this? How often do I take even the simplest, most ordinary conversation (that more often than not comes from a place of habitual asking “How are you?”) as an opportunity to tell others about Jesus? Here’s the answer I concluded: not nearly as much as I should.

I want to stop reacting out of habit and start acting out of intention.

John wanted to give Jesus glory with the conversation pointing to Jesus not himself. My job, like John’s, is to point others to Christ in everything I do- that includes the mundane routine parts of my day.

A few sentences later in the same chapter, John is preaching with Jesus standing nearby. As Jesus was walking, two men approached Him and followed. One of the men’s name was Andrew; and it says, “He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, ‘We have found the Messiah’ (which means Christ),” (verse 41). Andrew, who would later become a disciple, followed Jesus and immediately ran to his brother Simon Peter to bring him to Jesus.

The next day, Jesus found a man named Philip and told him to follow Him. Philip immediately went and found Nathaniel. He said, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth,” (verse 41).

Andrew and Philip both IMMEDIATELY went and told someone else. They were men going through their routine, just trying to make it through another Monday (or whatever day) when Jesus shows up and asks them to follow Him. They ventured away from the habits they knew as second nature because their desire for Jesus exceeded everything and anything else. Not only did they follow Him, they ran to tell others! They had so much excitement and joy and passion for Jesus that their reaction was to go tell more people about how they had been with Jesus.

This is how we need to live- putting aside our comfortable habits to live out our purpose in what we do. Even when something feels like just another part of our mundane routine, let’s seek opportunities to make each part of our day different than the day before.

Let’s be intentional with the way we interact with others. Throw out the habit of sitting down at the same unassigned “assigned” seat at your lunch table; and take the time to notice the kid who sits by themself every day and ask them to sit with you. Let’s be intentional with the opportunities we’re given. Throw out the habit of complaining about the things you have to do every day (like school) and recognize the privilege you have in getting to do that (I think every student can agree this is something we failed to take advantage of).

Look for ways to be kind. Look for ways to speak loving truth into someone’s life. Look for ways to share the Gospel through the most ordinary parts of your day. Look for ways to be intentional. It means a lot more than our habits ever will.

I no longer want to do things as just another part of my routine. I want to do things with intention.