It’s not heard so much now but as a child you often heard the phrase "I didn't know whether I was on this Earth or Fuller's earth.” (Fullers earth is a type of clay used in various manufacturing processes and has very absorbent properties.)
The phrase means, to use another one of my favourite words,
that you have a feeling of being discombobulated, or confused. And with
Christmass day falling on a Wednesday this year I am not alone in feeling
confused and not knowing what day of the week it is, I have heard several
people speaking of this confusion. Many will be pleased to get back to some normality
and routine, though not everyone welcomes this.
However, order and routine do help us navigate through our
lives, and we know the disruption chaotic lives can have on people and their
families if there is no structure, no rules, no boundaries. (Something explored
in the famous novel, ‘Lord of the Flies, by William Golding)
And order out of chaos is exactly what we meet when we open our Bible to the first page.
In the beginning God created the heavens and
the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was
over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was
hovering over the waters.
And God speaks and brings order. The story continues until we
find human kind being created to partner with God in continuing this process of
bringing order out of chaos.
The story however takes a dark turn when God offers the
humans a choice, they can either trust that God knows what is good and what is bad,
what brings life and flourishing, and what will bring death, destruction and a
return to chaos. The humans chose their own path of self-determination, and we
might say, then all hell broke loose!
I wonder as we step into this new year what things we might
put in place that could become ‘holy habits,’ something we can do that would
help shape and form us more into the likeness of Christ. To help us partner
with God in bringing about order out of chaos, whether that is in people’s lives,
and that might mean something like CAP (Christians Against Poverty Home | CAP UK) for example, maybe helping them sort out debts, or helping prisoners
who have led chaotic lives. Or it might be something in the actual
environment, something in the natural creation. (This year I have made the same
New Year’s Resolution as last year, to endeavour to pick up at least one piece of
litter every day)
One of the holy habits you might pick up is to engage with
the Scriptures and The Bible Project are offering a great way of doing that in
conjunction with YouVersion Bible App. See https://www.bible.com/reading-plans/63058
One very obvious aspect of the Scriptures, especially the Old
Testament is that the life of the Israelites revolved around holy days or
seasons and festivities, often linked in with the farming calendar, like most
cultures of that period, it was an agrarian society.
That is one of the aspects I like about the ‘Church’s Year,
the calendar of Events, Feasts and Festivities along with periods of solemnity and
reflection.
Every year we make the journey following the life of Jesus from
birth to death, to resurrection and then the birth of the Church, God’s people.
Of course there is always a danger that we can become enslaved by routine, and at its extreme this can be very damaging and disruptive. I have read of people who had to return home, take off their socks and then put them back on, in the right order.
One of my ‘holy habits’ is to spend around an hour while eating
lunch, saying prayers and reading Scripture. However, this occasionally gets
disrupted as I must be somewhere else, or we have the grandchildren around or something. I
have learned to be relaxed about this as long as I do not lose this ‘habit’ altogether.
And let me leave you with this holy habit to try.
When you take down your Christmass cards put them all in a
box. (I use a carboard shoe box) On a Sunday take out one of the cards and pray
for the sender. I usually place the card with the name so I can see it, and
then whenever it catches my eye I offer up an arrow prayer. I will also, if prompted,
contact the person and let them know I am upholding them in prayer that week. At
the end of the week, I will see if the card has a nice cover, something that might
be used again, maybe as part of Christmass decoration, or a gift tag. The rest
is then recycled.
I would love to know if you have set or will set anything by
way of a holy habit in 2026. We might
then encourage each other, checking in to see how we are getting on.
And on creating Holy Habits I can highly recommend Andrew Robert’s book.
- Drop Thy still dews of quietness,
Till all our strivings cease;
Take from our souls the strain and stress,
And let our ordered lives confess
The beauty of Thy peace.
