Life in a Rhythm

Written by Jim Holland (August 2014)With the coming of August, we all enter a new rhythm of life. For me, the summer is more laid back; I am not as “scheduled” as I am the rest of the year. With the coming of fall and the beginning of school, everything changes for people who live in the suburbs.  I confess to you, as much as I love the summer, it won’t be long before I will welcome and embrace this new and more regimented schedule.This is the way we are made. We are creatures that will be bored if we see an infinite succession of “the same ole thing” on the horizon. It just so happens that God has made us in such a manner that change is pleasurable to us. On the one hand, God made us to love the “new and exciting,” and yet, on the other, he had made us to love permanence—things that last and are stable. We need a sense of security and rootedness in unchangeable things. How do we square these apparently conflicting desires?C. S. Lewis has offered an explanation, and it bears hearing, because our culture worships change. It offers endless avenues of “stuff” to get us out of a rut and tantalize and intoxicate the senses with a seemingly endless variety of pleasures. Each promises to be bigger and better than the one before. Lewis says it like this in The Screwtape Letters, a novel that chronicles the advice a senior devil gives a junior devil in how to deceive and tempt a young Christian:

 “[God] has balanced the love of change in them by a love of permanence. He has contrived to gratify both tastes together in the very world He has made, by that union of change and permanence which we call rhythm. He gives them the seasons, each season is different yet every year the same, so that spring is always felt as a novelty yet always as the recurrence of an immemorial theme.”

 Our culture has perverted this, and wants change for its on sake. This Lewis calls novelty. In this scenario, we are never satisfied. We see habits, rituals, and the “same ole thing” as obstacles that stifle us as humans. Lewis points out the danger in this, and it is obvious when you think about it:

 “The demand (for novelty) is valuable in various ways. In the first place it diminishes pleasure while increasing desire. The pleasure of novelty is by its very nature more subject than any other to the law of diminishing returns. And continued novelty costs money, so that the desire for it spells avarice or unhappiness or both.”

 Isn’t it interesting that in our culture there is more boredom, ennui, and dissatisfaction at the very time we are able to partake in a greater variety of experiences that at an point in history?  Certainly, advertising and fashion have recognized this, and just when we think we have spent the money to be fashionable and culturally hip, they change, and out of a deep sense of “being left behind” we shovel out more money for novelty.The beautiful thing about Christianity is that rather than slamming people for their need for change, God has graciously accommodated, and we might say it like this: He gives us the “same ole thing” in a rhythm so that when it rolls around again, it is new and fresh. This summer, Patrick and I have cut the yard every week. But sometime in the next few weeks, the heat will take its toll, and there will be the smell of cut grass and decay, and observing the ragged nature of things exhausted by heat and lack of rain, something will awakening in me, as it always has since the days of my youth, when I first noticed it: a new season is upon us; a change in the rhythm of my lifestyle and days. It is like being born again, as I think about it. It is as though I have never experienced it before. I anticipate, I taste, and I need this change. But when I reflect, I must admit that it really is nothing novel. I get this every year—the same ole thing, yet new and refreshing.This fall, we enter a new rhythm at the church. The summer is purposefully laid back at St. Patrick. It is a time for family, feasting, and just wasting time. Of course, if you really understand the gospel, you have been busy discipling someone, loving your neighbor, and giving the cup of cold water to someone in need. This fall, we are all back in a more regimented rhythm, and we will use this time in a different manner to grow in the gospel. We have Community Groups for adults that meet weekly. We have a structured time of Bible teaching on Sunday morning for all ages, and we have a weekly ministry on Wednesday and Sunday nights for our children and youth.Of all the things you might consider being involved in this fall, I hope you will make every effort to find a Community Group to join. A Community Group is the place at St. Patrick where you will find deep community—a place to know and be known. It is the place where you go to belong. A Community Group meets regularly to experience the power and presence of Jesus together, “For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.” (Matthew 18:20) God has built us to know and be known. He is a Trinity; he has never been alone, so when God made us, he made us with deep longings to connect meaningfully with people who love us no matter what.The Church is like no other community in the world—it gathers not to show off its accomplishments, but to show off what Jesus has accomplished for us. What that means is this: in this community, people don’t just love you when you are good; they love you even when you are not, because of Jesus. There is a lot of freedom in this. If you want to find that out for yourself, you might want to check out a Community Group this fall.