A dozen years ago, I wrote a post “In Defense of a (My) Dull Routine.” I return to praise that dull routine (and bemoan its interruption) today. In 2012 I said, “C.S. Lewis is reported to have said of his father that he was a man ‘wed to a dull routine.’ Lewis’ brother Warren wrote, ‘(Our) father had an almost pathological hatred of taking any step which involved a break with the dull routine of his daily existence.’”
The Lewis brothers did not remember their father’s dull routine in a positive light, but as I have confessed myself to be a man wed to a dull routine, I not only defend it as I did twelve years ago, I praise it. My dull routine is a sure defense against sin, in particular, sloth and maybe gluttony.
I routinely wake up at the same time every morning, routinely get dressed in running or walking wear appropriate to the season, and then, before a walk or a run, spend time with the appointed Scripture readings from the Daily Office found in the Book of Common Prayer. I routinely pray the psalms according to a routine into which I have settled, and then take a verse or two of one of the psalms into my walk or run.
For longer than I can remember, my source for the readings from the Daily Office has been ESV.org, the online site for the English Standard Bible. My dull routine was nearly shattered the other morning when I clicked the ESV.org bookmark on my browser’s navigation bar and was greeted with a notice that the app was offline for maintenance. They said I could check back later. But my dull routine does not allow for a routine task to be accomplished later. Fortunately, BibleGateway.com also has a page with the readings from the Daily Office, so all was not lost. Another morning with the dull routine only slightly modified.
What is the lesson to be learned? Lighten up and don’t be so bound to your dull routine? No, sin, in the words of the Lord to Adam’s son Cain, is crouching at the door. Sloth and gluttony are poised to pounce should I let down the guard of my dull routine.
To be sure, I could be less reliant on tech to deliver God’s word into my dull routine. In fact, even if BibleGateway.com had been down for maintenance or from some Russian cyber-attack, I still have my bookshelf. And should our bookshelves collapse, we are assured that God has planted his word in our hearts (1 Corinthians 3:5-9, Proverbs 4:20-22) through the sometimes-dull routine of hearing the word preached and attending to the regular reading of it.
The writer of the letter to the Hebrews tells us God word is living and active (Hebrews 4:12). Martin Luther is quoted as having said, “The Bible is alive; it speaks to me. It has feet; it runs after me. It has hands; it lays hold of me.”
As dull as my routine may be, through it I encounter something living and active (sharper than any two-edged sword). Morning by routine morning, the Bible speaks to me, it runs after me, it lays hold of me.
No tech glitch is going to silence that word.