Do you have rote routines in your life?

​Rote: mechanical or unthinking routine or repetition, a joyless sense of order.

How many things in your life do you do as part of an "unthinking" routine. How many things in you life do you do simply because you've always done them, or because they feel like they are the things you need to do to keep order in your life, yet it's an order that brings you no joy.

Not that joy is always easy to find with our routines, but - if we've thought about a routine, and even if it's a complex or hard or challenging one, but it's critical to being who we long to be - that in itself will bring joy.

Several years ago I was drawn into a new routine. I went for a run one morning. Then again the next morning. Now 7 years later I have a running routine.

Running, more than anything outside of my faith, has challenged me to look at my life and consider how I might make it better.

Running made me look at my nutrition routine. Nutrition had always been measured by the scales in my bathroom. Get up. Step on. Numbers higher, eat less. Numbers lower, congratulations, you can eat ice cream tonight.

But the more I ran, the more I felt better about life - mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually. My running routine made me wonder if the way I ate didn't influence those areas as well. Maybe if I ate different I could run more and better. Maybe running could have an even greater impact on all of those areas.

Nutrition can become a rote routine until we think about how we can make it better.

Running made me think about the connections in my life. I was suddenly a part of a tribe of people who poured themselves into me finding my best self. In turn, I suddenly started wondering how I could help the people around me find their best selves.

Relationships can become rote until we think about how we can make them more meaningful.

Running made me think about my prayer routine. My routine had always been, "hey God, I'm in some trouble here, can you come bail me out?" With running, my routine became more, "hey Keith, this is God here, I have some people who need loved. Can you help me out?"

Our connection to God can become rote until we get still enough to know God wants us to hear him more than he needs to hear us.

It's the time of the year when we start thinking about the new year - the new me. Maybe before you jump too far ahead into your thinking about all the new things you want to do, take a look at all the old things you've been doing. Ask yourself why you do them and what you want out of them.

Are they a path to joy or a joyless sense of order?

Maybe start with today. Just pause a few times in the middle of whatever it is you're doing. Ask yourself, is this part of my path to joy, or is this just an automated step in a life built on a joyless sense of order?