When you move to a new place there is always this adjustment period. When you first move into a house everything seems different. That old couch suddenly looks revived in a freshly painted living room, every drawer holds possibility. I remember feeling this way when I moved into my first apartment my freshman year of college. I was filled with excitement, but then night came. Every noise made me jump. Suddenly the newness was replaced with fear of the unknown.
As time goes on you fall into a rhythm and a pattern. You learn where the silverware goes and what the dishwasher sounds like at night. You become adjusted. Soon you stop hearing that creaky window. Suddenly you stop paying attention to the little details and over time the newness disappears. That new house becomes normal.
I think naturally we adjust to our surroundings. When we adjust we are not as alert, we become complacent with our surroundings. We lose focus. Instead of looking for every opportunity and taking in every experience, we fall into a rhythm and we let our reality become normal. It is like the drive to work. In the begin we remember every stop light and turn, we are alert and aware of our surroundings. But soon we learn our way. One day we arrive at work, but we cannot recall any details of our drive. Soon the days blend together, but somehow out of all the days and weeks we remember that morning a squirrel ran out in front of our car. We remember because it interrupted our “normal”.
Coming on the race I thought it would be hard to ever find “normal”. Everything was new and the year was full of possibilities. However, as time has passed certain things have become normal. 15 hour bus ride, no sweat. The electricity or water is not working, why did I ever expect anything different? Bugs flying into my dinner plate, extra protein. The street kids coming up to us with empty hands, normal. Sure month to month little things change; we sleep somewhere different, we work with a different group of people and our ministry looks different. But I have learned to adjust quickly. Within a few days of arriving at a new location I learn the routine. I find my rhythm and I become comfortable.
But I did not come on the race to be comfortable. I do not want to just flow through the rhythm of every day. I want to wake up alert and ready, I want to take in every moment and opportunity. I only get one chance to do this, yet, I often find myself dreaming of the future. It’s only month five and I am already worried about interviewing for jobs when I get home. I am letting precious minutes slip through my hands when I should be fighting for every second of every day. I need to keep my eyes open for opportunities to break out of the mold. To step out of rhythm.
Travis, our squad leader, recently talked to us about being interruptible. He challenged us to not let our lives distract us from the opportunities in front of us. We need to be alert and take advantage of every moment. I am working on being more interruptible. I no longer want to follow a predictable rhythm. I want to stop and talk to the man on the side of the road. I want to get to know the people outside of our host family. I want to pause my life to sit and get to know the street kids.
How about you? Are you willing to take a step out of rhythm? Will you stop what you are doing to get to know the people around you? Take a moment to reflect on today… Were you interruptible? What did you do today to make it different from the last?
