"Earls" and "Thelmas"

There was an elderly couple who did everything together. Their lives were filled with routines. They ate every meal together. They played bingo every Tuesday together. They even read the same book together. Every night they went to bed together at the same time. And every night they sank their false teeth in their respected jars together and gave each other a goodnight kiss before they went to sleep. One night as the elderly couple crawled into bed the old man leaned in to give his bride of 50 years a kiss. When to his surprise she bit his lip. The old man let out a yelp! “What in the world Thelma?” he said. “Earl, remember how we use to kiss when we were young?” Thelma said. Earl quickly replied, “Well sure I do Thelma, but now we take our teeth out before we do that!”

When does a routine begin to live our life for us? Now there is nothing inherently wrong with routines. In fact routines can be a strong display of how disciplined a person’s life is. But routines can become stale quickly when they begin to cross the boundaries into our relationships. Especially our intimate relationships. That’s because a relationship was never meant to be routine. It was meant to be full of purpose. It was meant to be spontaneous and exploding with excitement. It was meant to be alive.

However, routines can live your life for you if you allow it to. It can dictate your relationships with your friends, with your family, with your spouse, and even more importantly with your God. God didn’t create us for a routine. He wasn’t sitting in heaven planning his routine with us. No, God was planning our relationship with Him. God created us for a relationship. He created relationships for us with one another. Some of us are "Earls" and some of us are "Thelmas". Which are you? God and people alike don't want to be the special occasion in your life every once in while. They want to be thee occasion in your life all the while. So live in relationships and emerge from...your routines.