Have you ever felt like certain things just become routine? We go through the same process every morning. We wash our hair the same way. We cook the same meals. We work the same shifts with the same people day in and day out. Even some traditions seem to become routine. The same holiday dinners with the same food. Routine. But God didn’t intend for life to be routine. He intended for us to experience new adventures and new mercies everyday.

For most of my life, I’ve been the butt of ridicule. Bullying is nothing new to me but that doesn’t mean it hurts any less. When I decided to join a group at church a couple years ago, my reason for joining was truly Spirit-led. When I was ridiculed by another member of that group, I moved on with my life. The things said about me were mean and hurtful, but, like I said, I was not new to ridicule. I set the brokenness aside and went on about my life without fully understanding just how it would impact me. This year I realized that ridicule was holding me back. I was allowing it to control my worship. I was holding back in fear of further ridicule but not necessarily by the same person. I was broken, but not in the same way as before.

As I was studying The Last Supper, a passage that I know by heart, some thing stood out that I could not read past. It imprinted on my heart so much that I have changed the way I take communion. In Matthew 26:26, Jesus broke the bread into pieces and gave it to the disciples. He broke it. He could have given them whole pieces, but He chose to break it. I have always known His breaking the bread stood for the breaking of His body on the cross. I have seen the brutality depicted in The Passion of the Christ. I comprehend the magnitude of the beating Jesus took for us. It wasn’t until God imprinted the words “Jesus broke the bread” on my heart that I realized I needed to break the bread too. Now, every time I take communion, I break the wafer to signify, just like Jesus, I’m willing to be broken. I’m willing to take my journey one step further, one step deeper, one step closer to Jesus. What I’ve noticed with this breaking process is that the wafer, much like me, has never broken in the same place. Oh, the revelation that came with that!

By now, I’m sure we all know the general consensus is that 2020 has been a broken year. Social media has been flooded with memes about this year being less grand than expected, some asking for a refund from Father Time. I’ve even seen some with graves depicting 2020 as a year of loss. While I will agree that this year has been exceptionally strange, for me personally, this has been a year of tremendous growth. A year to sink deeper into worship. A year of exploring new ways to connect with Jesus. A year of seeking His Word more and my ways less. This year I found security in God and worried less and less about what others think of me.

With Christmas just a few days away, our church services have been filled with Christmas songs. The same Christmas songs we sing every year. In marches routine…or does it? I noticed today that my journey of diving deeper into worship has changed the way I sing Christmas songs. I don’t just recite the lyrics out of habit, I feel them deep within me. They fuel the fire inside me. They bring new light and perspective. You see, we control what becomes routine. If we do things out of redundancy, of course, they will become routine tasks that have little meaning. But if we make a conscious choice to seek purpose, nothing will be routine and meaningless. Find the purpose!

Allow God to transform the graves that seek to hold us back into gardens that flourish and grow with purpose. He is capable of touching all areas of your life – parenthood, family-life, friendships, worship. Nothing is too small or too big for His Glory and His Mercy.

– Walking Purposely by Faith & Finding the Blessing, ❤️ Renee