Thinking Routinely
October 22, 2009 // By: Bob Hamp // 2 Comments
A good friend of mine just got back from a trip. In California she spent time with two different groups, helping them think differently and move further down their journey to freedom. I watched her face while she talked about. She was tired but refreshed. What is it about stepping outside our routine that makes thinking differently so normal?
I realized this morning with a sigh of relief that we start Kairos again today. This will be the last of five of these events we host in 2009. It is a great deal of work, but I am energized, because we stop everything else and focus. What is it about stepping outside our routine that makes thinking differently so normal?
Moses was walking through the desert, and the Bible says He turned aside to see what kind of sight he was seeing. He saw a bush which burned but was not consumed, and his whole life changed. What is it about stepping outside our routine that makes thinking differently so normal?
Jesus took a detour to travel through an area, not normal traveled by His people. By a well, He had an encounter with a woman. This encounter changed her life, and her community forever. What is it about stepping outside our routine that makes thinking differently so normal?
I do not wish to convey in any way that God is not with you in your routine. Of course He is, I just think we are less likely to notice Him. I think we will all discover is that familiarity breeds…well…familiarity. In our routine, we find it less likely to observe the sacred and the supernatural. In the familiar we seem to expect less, that which is unfamiliar. We may even look right at it, and not see what is right in front of us.
What if within your routine, you stopped thinking routinely, and allowed God to show you what you miss because of familiarity?
2 Comments
What if God intends for what we consider to be the “outside our routine” to be our “normal”?
What if we are simply unaware of the lie that what we call the routine/familiar is not God’s intended normal for us?
What if the whole world lived everyday of their life as the lady from California, the participants of Kairos, Moses in the desert, or the lady by the well? Is that not what heaven on Earth would look like?
Perhaps moving away from the “lie” of routine/familiarity and embracing “thinking differently” as the “new normal” is our access to BEING God’s re-presentation of Himself over all of Creation. Would we not be fulfilling both job descriptions then – His and ours?
The way Jesus decided to enter the “non popular well” is all we need to engage freedom everyday. Easy like turning the channel from a deciving show that we use to think “we can handle”.Like writting in english when you even know how to speak it well. That’s transforming…look at me now. hehehe. God is so Sweet.