Should Do or Need To?

How many of you, like me, have probably washed your hands more in the last two years than you have in your entire life? Even when we were in quarantine, couldn’t go anywhere, and wasn’t exposed to anyone outside my household, I was washing my hands constantly throughout the day. Hand sanitizer became my new lotion. I have a bottle in my bedroom, in my kitchen, in my car, on my desk, in my bag, and depending on what I’m wearing I just might have one in my pocket.

Well, the other day I got my mail out of the mailbox and started making my way through the mountainous pile of paper. (Judge not lest you be judged!) When I finally got through everything, I really didn’t think there were any contagious infectious virus germ bug thingies on my hands, but I figured I needed to wash my hands anyway. So, I went to the restroom, got a little drop of soap, and sped through the singing of the happy birthday song – all because I knew I should wash my hands but didn’t really believe I needed to.

How many of us live our Christian lives this way? We are all-in at the beginning. Then we start to relax, get comfortable, and become more and more passive as time goes on. What was once new and always on the forefront of our minds, eventually becomes a familiar time-consuming afterthought. We end up just going through the motions of doing things just to say we did it. We know we should, but we really don’t think we need to. We think that little drop of time we spend in the Word is going to wash us and that worship song sang at double speed is going to saturate us, when in actuality we leave those times just as dirty and dry as we were when we arrived.

I know we’re two years into this pandemic, but there are some disciplines we have implemented as a result of this that are beneficial for us to continue to maintain. Just like this is true in natural things, there are also spiritual disciplines that are beneficial for us to continue in. The longer you’re a believer, the stronger these disciplines should become in your life – not just because we think it’s something we should do, but because we believe we need to.

To go even deeper, get your copy of one or all of our Everyday Wisdom Book Series and subscribe to our Everyday Wisdom Podcast.