I came across this whilst reading through the book ‘Lead like Jesus’ (2005) by Blanchard and Hodges.

‘Have you ever thought about that phrase – alarm clock? What an awful concept. Why isn’t it the “opportunity” clock? Or the “it’s going to be a great day” clock? The “alarm” immediately ignites your task-orientated self, and you jump out of bed.

Pretty soon you’re trying to eat breakfast while you’re washing. You race to the car and immediately pick up the cell phone and rush off to meetings all morning, followed by lunch meeting, afternoon meetings, and a dinner meeting. Finally, you get home at 9:00 or 10:00pm and fall into bed exhausted, without any energy to say goodnight to anybody. What happens the next day?

The “alarm” goes off, and you’re at it again…To avoid being consumed by the rat race and the pressure of life, all of us need to develop strategies and spiritual habits that will help us stay on purpose…Jesus stayed on track with His mission by applying five key habits that countered the negative forces in His life.

These were solitude, prayer, study and application of scripture, accepting and responding to God’s love and, involvement in supportive relationships…habits are important because, as Rick Warren says in the PDL, “your character is essentially the sum of your habits“. If we want to develop character like Jesus, we have to look carefully at His habits’.

 (Blanchard & Hodges 2005, ‘Lead like Jesus’ p.153)

This illustration illuminates our sometimes out-of-control routines. It reminded me of Ann Voskamp’s ‘life is not an emergency. Life is eucharisteo’ (‘One thousand gifts’ 2010, p.74)

….Pithy stuff… 🙂