Unexpected Blessings

For the last month I have been posting a 30 Day Study of the New Testament.  Now that it has ended I will post something else every day. I’m not sure what it will look like.  It might change every day - sort of like our lives are - but it will begin with Scripture and invite you to consider some question or other.

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Isaiah 43:19a

I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? 

I like routines. I like doing the same things in the same order every day.  I don’t get quite as freaked out when something disrupts my routine as I used to, which is a good thing. There was a time when a change as small as a detour on the highway would upset me so much I would have an anxiety attack and have to go home.  It’s better today.  I have learned to accept that change is part of life and to try to deal with the change like an adult.  I will grumble and growl for a while but I adapt to a new routine.  When that new routine changes, as it inevitably will, I have to start all over again accepting the new thing in my life.

We are all - or nearly all - doing new things, and have been doing these new things for a little over a month now.   That wouldn’t be a problem except that the new things refuse to settle down into a routine.  We face changes every day.  Unless we were housebound prior to the Shelter in Place orders, our daily routine has changed drastically.  Things we are used to doing regularly either aren’t getting done at all, or have become more important in this new (ab)normal.  

My weekday routine hasn’t changed as much as you might think, considering I haven’t left my house since March 16th.  I get up early, pray, have coffee and breakfast, read all my email, pray some more, and get dressed to go to the office.   At 9am I go into my home office, and work there till lunchtime.  After lunch I go back into my office and do more work stuff until my stomach reminds me I need to have dinner. I used to spend the afternoons in study and writing, but now I also call people in the congregation and write cards to several people daily.  

But the weekends are so very different.  I can’t seem to get my day off, off.  Friday is often taken up with meetings and prep for meetings.  Saturday I am up early writing the message and the prayers, and recording my parts of Sunday’s worship.  Sunday morning I get to worship with the rest of the congregation from the solitude of my home. In the midst of upheaval and disruption, I realize that I get to take the Sabbath Day as a real Sabbath - a holy day - for the first time in 20 years.   Of all the changes to my routine, this is a most unexpected blessing.

What new thing has surprised and blessed you the most?