What I Do Daily Forms Me

 

"The crucible of our formation is in the monotony of our daily routines." ~ Tish Warren

Every day I make choices. Most of them are unconscious, subtle. My habits begin when my eyes open. Do I pray? Reach for my phone? Head to the bathroom? There are so many ways we could begin our day. Some will form us in ways of worship and other habits will form us to love stimulation. Every habit has a way of forming us, our loves, our growth.

It's easier to believe that our decisions, big and small, don't have an impact on our growth, our shaping of appetites, the way we will respond in an hour to our children or the person in front of us at the stoplight. God's transformation of our hearts happens in the repetitive, small, unseen spaces of daily faith and repentance, of the formation practices we live out, in the dailiness of eating, cleaning, running errands, and walking. We like to think that change happens in the big gestures, the rededication, the emotionally sweeping worship. Change and growth happen when we commune with God in the everyday moments of life, here a little, there a little. A branch connected to a vine. Abiding. 

My morning routine fell off the rails in June. I needed a lot of sleep. I read books. I received mercy. But there is a point when you know your body, soul, and spirit need sustenance, grace, and nourishment in tangible, daily practices. What is done once in a while doesn't change you. What you do daily or rhythmically does. The ways I ordered my morning in the front half of the year were no longer serving me. What I ate and what I read felt stale and burdensome. I decided to reimagine my mornings. What would it look like to begin the day with a walk? I tend to live my life in my head, but staying in my head for the first hour of waking wasn't "working". I explored what it would mean to begin my day in my body. Move it gently. Get in nature. Eat some oatmeal. Stretch. These movements are ones that I used to leave until the afternoon, but now in this season, God was offering me an invitation to show up in my body in morning prayer. I found myself generating energy, both physical and spiritual by doing this rhythm. The fresh air and sunrise and birds and trees delighted me. By the time I got home, I felt clear-minded, open, ready. The shape of my body and soul are being formed in beautiful ways by this new habit.

We must examine our daily habits, our repetitions, and see what fruit they produce in our lives.  But we recognize that we can't overhaul our entire way of living and doing in just a day or month. We have to begin small. I think our mornings are the best place to begin. Think about the first 5 minutes of your morning. What do you typically do? Does this bring you nourishment, life, peace, closer to God's heart? Start there. What if all of us transformed the first 5 minutes our day? I love the concept of the Heroic Minute. It says that you have a fixed time for getting up and you do it without hesitation. You've won the biggest battle of the day by beginning with self-control, strengthening the will.

“Conquer yourself each day from the very first moment, getting up on the dot, at a set time, without granting a single minute to laziness. If, with the help of God, you conquer yourself in that moment, you’ll have accomplished a great deal for the rest of the day. It’s so discouraging to find yourself beaten in the first skirmish!” ~ St. Josemaria Escriva

Today is a day for noticing. We ask God to reveal to us our current habits, the things we choose day after day to eat, to drink, to watch, to read, and we ask him to show us how those practices are shaping our lives. Because they do. Anything we do repetitively forms our loves and therefore our priorities. And by His grace in the power of the Holy Spirit, here a little, there a little, we begin to reorient our time. We get tender to the small choices. We grow in all the best ways. We become more like Him.