The Moscow Rules - Part 4

Yesterday we covered the 3rdd of the Moscow Rules... and today we are looking at the 4th. So just to recap on those 10 rules:
1. Know Your Mission
2. Gather Intelligence
3. Maintain A Natural Pace
4. Vary Your Pattern
5. Blend Into The Crowd
6. Be Aware Of Your Environment At All Times
7. Avoid Defensiveness At All Times
8. Assume That You're Under Servailence
9. Never Go Against Your Gut
10. Never Look Back

One of the easiest traps for churches and Christ followers is to fall into routine... mindless habit.
Now there are some routines / habits that are good for us... habits like having a devotional time with God, having a date night with your spouse, going to the gym, etc.
Where these habits become counter productive is when the become stale and predictable because we never vary our pattern in the habit.
We always follow the exact same routine in our devotions, date nights, at the gym, etc. Our times become boring, dull, and lifeless. Now the reason that we started the habit in the first place is because it was so good for us... but due to familiarity it has become meaningless.
Rick Warren tells of an interesting fact in his book the Purpose Driven Church... he tells us that once we have sung a song over 50 times, we can sing that song without thought... and therefore without worship!
Even our bodies respond negativly to the same workout program. It is important in working out to keep your workout program varied if you want to achieve optimal results in the gym.

The habit itself should not change... but what we do within that habit should be varied in order to keep it vibrant and full of life. After all variety is the spice of life!
Are your devotional times predictable?
Change the order, change the venue, change the version of the Bible that you are reading, change the way you read the Bible (theres just reading through a book, word studies, topical studies, character studies, chronological studies, etc.) Instead of reading the Bible why not picture it, take parables and make modern versions of it, write your own psalms, make songs about it, sketch what you read, memorize versus, etc.)

It is a crime to make the Bible boring! Its a crime to allow ourselves to drain of life simply because we allowed ourselves to get stuck in a certain routine.
Be creative... and you will soon see life flooding your soul once again!

I look forward to your comments!