At times I have found myself stuck in a rut. I keep doing the same things over and over again in the same way.
As a public speaker, I sometimes get in the habit of using the same vocabulary again and again. It usually indicates that I am intellectually lazy, not thinking clearly and poorly prepared. When I am in a rut, my words lack impact. I don’t like it when that happens to me because I lose freshness, creativity and intensity. And the people in my congregation don’t like it either. Clichés don’t grab attention.
A highway sign at the border of one prairie state said, “Choose your rut carefully because you will be in it for the next 450 miles.” Ruts are dangerous. If you stay in a rut long enough, it becomes your grave.
A rut is a sunken track or groove made in the dirt by the passage of wheels in soft, wet earth. I’ve been stuck in a rut with my vehicle many times and the outcome was never good. Today, most roads are paved, so there are no ruts, just potholes.
Ruts have become a metaphor for a predictable way of living. Living in a rut describes a dreary, monotonous life that is repeated over and over and is hard to escape. Creativity is lost and the spark of life is gone.
NOT ALL ROUTINES ARE RUTS
Most of us live with routines. We leave for work at the same time each day. We like to eat at the same time each day. We go to church regularly. We watch the same news channel on TV each day. We cut the grass and wash the car on Saturdays.
We have routines in church services too – when we sing, when we read the Bible and pray, when we give our offerings and when the pastor preaches. These routines make it easier for leaders to organize the service. It also allows the congregation to know what to expect will happen next.
These routines are valuable and helpful, but they can also imprison us as well. Predictability robs the congregation of the thrill of expectancy. With the routine, people are lulled to sleep, feeling, “I know what’s coming next. I’ve been here and done this before.”
A member of my church once told me, “I know exactly what’s coming next and it has robbed me of the anticipation of what God may be doing.” He added, “Pastor, your routine has become a rut and it has taken away the excitement of the service.”
The Bible reveals a God of variety who works in many different ways. When people in the New Testament church worshipped, there was no rut! Worshippers eagerly wondered what God would do next.
ARE YOU IN A RUT?
You might be in a rut if you can’t remember the last time you did something for the first time. Has your life become a constant repetition of what you’ve done before. When was the last time you did something new?
You might be in a rut if you have lost sight of your goals. You are satisfied with who you are and what you have accomplished and have stopped pursuing your own dreams. Life is a plateau. You are coasting.
You might be in a rut if you haven’t made a mistake or failed at something lately. Do you play to win or just not to lose?
You might be in a rut if you go through the routines of the Christian life but have lost the vitality of your relationship with God. When you read your Bible, there may be information but there is little inspiration. God doesn’t seem to speak to you any more.
No matter how experienced or motivated we are, we all go through times when we are stuck in a rut.
We can be in a rut in our marriages. Putting a relationship together can deteriorate into predictability that chases the spark out of a marriage.
We can be in a rut in our careers. Doing the same thing every day in the same way soon becomes monotonous. The lack of variety takes away initiative and creativity. The willingness to initiate has no place for the person working in a rut.
We can be in a rut in our lifestyle. We have our hair done the same way all the time. We watch the same TV programs again and again. We vacation at the same place each year. Our lifestyle becomes a blah repeat of the same things over and over again.
We can be in a rut in our walk with God. Perhaps this is the most serious rut we can get into. God certainly does not lead us in a rut. The lifestyle of the first Christians detailed in the Book of Acts was anything but slogging through a rut. But the reality is that following God can degenerate to a ritual of doing certain things, going certain places and associating with certain people, and we know that such behavior robs us of influence, impact and inspiration.
GET OUT OF YOUR SPIRITUAL RUT
Set new life-patterns.
Ruts are formed by repeatedly making the same choice and following the same paths. Ruts indicate we are in a predictable mold. They are a sign that we’ve gone stale and life is on auto-pilot.
Make a change. Recognize that as long as you are in a rut, you are in an unproductive pattern. Change your behavior. Change your thinking. Look forward. Set new goals.
Serve others, not just yourself
Get active. Get your mind off yourself. Meeting the needs of others is demanding and provides diversity and opportunity to break out of any rut. Serving others will force you to do things differently.
Visit people in the hospital. Get involved in a prison ministry. Help at a soup kitchen for street people. Have lunch with someone new. Make a new friend.
Celebrate the presence of God
When you attend church, refuse to let it become just another predictable service. You can go numb by the ritual or the absence of liturgy. Let the worship bring you into God’s presence. Seek to connect with God, not only with your mind, but with your spirit.
Renew the romance in your love-relationship with God. Take the yawn out of worship. We’ve all had times when going to church left us unmoved because of the familiarity of the routine.
Revive your spiritual passion. Change your personal devotional pattern. Don’t do devotions the same way every day. Listen to some different worship music. Listen to a sermon tape or disc.
Sometimes God allows us to become uncomfortable so that he can get us out of our ruts.
Look to God for your satisfaction. The Lord is a God of variety. He is unpredictable. He has a variety of ways of speaking with us and dealing with our situations.
Saturate your mind with Scripture
It’s not how much of the Bible you get through each day; it’s how much of the Bible gets through you!
For some, their personal devotions have degenerated into two verses and a quick prayer.
Read a new translation. Read in a different place or at a different time. Take time to meditate on what you read.
My father had a practice he used in reading the Bible devotionally. At times he sat on a big rock near a river where he was alone and undisturbed. He would read an entire chapter in the Bible, then close his Bible and attempt to recall everything he had read in the chapter. He’d then open his Bible and check if he remembered what he’d read. Then he’d repeat the same process with the same chapter.
He wasn’t attempting to memorize the verses but rather making sure he was aware of everything he read. The process kept him alert and alive. Dad said the process enabled him to meditate on what he had read and often moved him to tears.
Start
It is easy to make excuses for staying in our ruts. If tomorrow is the same as today, I don’t have any explaining to do. People won’t understand if I act differently.
Your age doesn’t matter because, if you aren’t going to do something significant with your life, it doesn’t matter how long you will live! If you want significance in your life, you must start. Work and live with a sense of urgency and positive expectation. Look harder for possibilities than for problems.
No one is going to pull you out of your rut; you have to take action and get out yourself.
Identify your rut. Others can help you do this; they see things you can’t see yourself.
Stop digging. Don’t make your rut deeper. Discard some of your old thought patterns go. Stop doing things the same way.
Initiate small steps of change. You don’t have to change everything at once, just take some small steps.
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