Are we just checking boxes?

The charge

A few people have challenged me lately. Their concern goes something like this: “You do your morning routine just to keep the streak alive. You’re checking boxes.”

I’ll admit there’s some truth in it. Some mornings I go through my routine out of habit, or out of a plain sense of obligation to keep my commitments. I open my Bible and no great insight comes. I pray and God seems absent. I journal and the page feels flat.

The full range of human emotion lays itself over my mornings. Some days I’m tired. Some days I’m distracted. Some days I’m aggravated. And still I get up, and I check the boxes.

So are they right? I don’t think so, and I want to push back on a few levels.

Do you remember yesterday’s breakfast?

Is it bad to eat just because you need nourishment, whether or not you remember the meal later? Of course not.

I couldn’t tell you what I ate for breakfast yesterday. But I know I ate, and I know I had strength for the day. Most meals aren’t memorable. They’re just faithful. They keep you alive.

Our souls need food too. Time in Scripture, prayer, journaling, meditation, whatever your daily spiritual habits are, works the same way. Israel gathered manna every morning, and most of those mornings weren’t miracles worth writing home about. They were just bread. Jesus taught us to pray for daily bread, not for a feast we’ll talk about for years.

A forgettable morning in the Word is not a wasted one. It’s breakfast.

Yes, it’s a habit

“Are you just doing it out of habit?” Some days, honestly, yes.

But I’ve also built a habit of eating regularly, whether I feel like it or not. Nobody thinks that’s a problem. We call it healthy. A habit is simply a decision you made once, so you don’t have to win the same argument with yourself every morning.

The habit isn’t the point. It’s the road that gets me to the table.

Yes, it’s an obligation

What about obligation? Again, I’d ask: why is that bad?

I made a commitment. First and foremost before God, and second before my brothers. Why would I not follow through, even on a morning I don’t feel like it?

Jesus said, “Let your yes be yes and your no be no” (Matthew 5:37). I said I would do it, so I’m going to do it. A promise that only holds when I’m in the mood was never much of a promise.

I’ll say one more thing, carefully. I suspect that sometimes the person questioning my motives isn’t trying a daily rhythm himself. Questioning someone else’s virtue can be an easy way to look away from our own lack of intention. I’ve done it too.

Taking my critics at their best

But let me take them at their best. They want to make sure my relationship with God isn’t a performance or an empty ritual. They want it to be vibrant and real. For that concern, I’m grateful. I share it.

There are mornings I’m just dialing it in. I won’t pretend otherwise. But more often than not, my habits carry me through the stretches when my emotions aren’t enough to keep me faithful. And knowing I’ll give an account to God and to my brothers carries me through the dry days and back into joy.

Here’s what I’ve found: if I show up, I usually meet God in some way. Not every day, and rarely on schedule. But I’m far more likely to meet Him by showing up daily in a place and posture of focus and reflection than by waiting until I feel like it.

Try it

So to my friend who says it’s all for show, or all obligation, I’d offer a challenge: try it.

Give it a few weeks. Show up every morning, especially the mornings you don’t feel like it. Then watch what happens to the affections of your heart over time.

You may discover there’s a deep well for your soul. You only have to drink a little from it every day.