Today marks the beginning of the end of one of my songs. Today is the start of the final chorus, if you will. This song of my life, though maybe not audible to anyone, is a blend of the rhythms, the patterns, that have made up my life for a long time.

Disclaimer: I once won a spelling bee in elementary school on the word "rhythm." Expect to see it a lot in this post as I continue to gloat about that win ;) 

Where was I? Oh yes - rhythms. Rhythms rhythms rhythms. These rhythms are a demarcation of time. They can span seconds or a lifetime, but we all have them. Rhythms are those little things that we do that provide the outline for our days, our weeks, our months, our years, our lives. They are those little things that become habits and patterns we fall into, and together, they blend together in a portrait of our days.

For the last four years, one of my rhythms has been waking up, rushing to get ready and walking onto the campus where I work. The rhythm of my workday has defined how time has been spent the last four years for me. This demarcation of 8-5 (or 8:30 to 5:30) at my office has been a steady beat. More recently, I have grown accustomed to the rhythm of a bedtime routine with the man I love. For a long time, Sunday mornings at church was a rhythm of my life. Over the past year or more, that rhythm has changed to sound like Saturday evenings at church. It's kind of like syncopation :)  These things are rhythms, patterns, and they make up the songs of our lives.

This time next month, those rhythms I've had will change. What is change, but a disruption in the patterns we've lived in for so long? No longer will I wake up and come into work on this campus. No longer will our bedtime rhythm have the exact same nuances. No longer will our syncopation be Saturday night church - it will change to Sunday nights. Those little traditions that we depend on to structure our days and our time and our lives will change.

Right now, we still don't know what that change will look like. We don't really have jobs (except A's contract professor thing). We don't have a place to live. We don't have a date our ReloCubes will be delivered on. We don't have a date we'll arrive in Denver. Without any rhythms to base our future off of, it sounds pretty silent to me, and silence often causes me to panic. However, Scripture teaches that it's in the silence that we are reminded that God is God. He is our creator, our sustainer, he is our treasure and prize, he is our substitute, and he is our Father. As our Father, we know he gives good gifts to his children. He is also our baseline. He is the drumline, the rhythm, the beat of the bass around which every other rhythm orders itself. My relationship with Jesus, regardless of the ebb and flow of every other rhythm in my life, should be and will be steadfast. It is that rhythm upon which we ought to base our life's songs.

So although things seem silent right now - there is a drumbeat. At this point in my life, I wish my posture was more one of excited anticipation over the rhythms certain to come, rather than anxiety at the silence settling around me. As believers in Christ, shouldn't that always be our attitude: Humble, excited anticipation at how the Master Conductor is going to fill our lives with beautiful music?

Rhythms can be and are a good thing, when properly arranged around the steady drumbeat of the gospel. I am learning, though, that when I base my existence upon those traditions, I settle into a rut that is more focused on ME than on the Conductor and the music he is creating. What rhythms do you have that keep you from hearing the Lord's rhythm for your life? How can we encourage one another to not grow complacent, but to be vigilant to orient our lives around the gospel?

I've been listening to Shane and Shane this morning, so, as I'm "sitting in this waiting room of silence, waiting for that still, soft voice I know, offering my words up to the rooftop to your heart, trusting that this closet's where you are," I'm reminded that "Sovereign Lord this time's from you. So I sit in the waiting room of silence because it's all about you."

"The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance...You make known to me that path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore." - Psalm 16