Habits

Take your vitamins . . . floss your teeth . . . go to the gym . . . As our doctors often remind us, our good habits keep us alive and kickin'; our bad habits can kill us.

As we start a new year, we often pause to review our life habits. Have you thought lately about the habits of your heart?

Does your heart race to wonder and revel in joy? Does your heart slow in a few quiet, still places during each day? Does your heart have a regular rhythm of work and worship, play and prayer?

If you feel like your heart is beating out of sync and needs a tune-up, the good news is, we have Pacemaker. Our God is the God who breathed healthy rhythms into the very fabric of creation. And the one who created YOU invites you to indulge in habits that sustain your life, day-in-day out. And I'm talking about rhythms even more important than eating right, taking your vitamins and working out. Those rhythms are about your body. I'm talking about the rhythms that keep your soul alive.

I don't know what habit you need - maybe Scripture reading, maybe prayer, maybe attending worship regularly, maybe talking through tough issues with a Christian friend. But NOW is the time!

One of the habits that helps my heart beat in time is reading the Scripture lessons set out in the Daily Office Lectionary (don't let that word scare you, it just means lessons or readings) in the Book of Common Prayer. These readings are designed so that if you read the three lessons (Old Testament, New Testament and Gospel) every day for two years, you've read pretty much the whole Bible. If you read all the Psalms recommended, you read through the Psalms every six weeks.

Since the system is a little confusing, let me just point you in the right direction: you can find the readings for today (Tuesday, 1/2/07) on page 940 under "Jan. 2." If you can't figure things out from there, and the additional instructions on pages 934-935 don't help (and they may not - they're a little confusing, too), don't hesitate to shoot me an email - revjanet@stpaulsct.org.

Studies show that it takes six weeks for any new habit to take root in us in such a way that it "sticks," so don't give up if your new "habit of the heart" feels clumsy or if you get out of sync with your new rhythm for a day or two (or longer!).

May this be a year in which your heart beats at one with the goodness of God and all creation.