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For the first two decades of my life, Christianity seemed irrelevant and impractical. I went to church off-and-on until I turned sixteen. I didn’t care to go because it thrusted me into a different world from the one I knew. The preachers bored both the old and the young. I never heard a sermon with the message Christianity is relevant for your daily routine and here’s how.
Then I became a Christian around age eighteen…and this didn’t change. Christianity gave me insight into life after death, but I received no perspective for living well before I die. I learned only to be “holy.” I thought we existed to avoid hell and helps others do the same.
Then everything changed.
I realized I missed out on a very important aspect of Christianity which no one seemed familiar with. Below I share a bit of what I’ve learned on why Christianity is relevant for your daily routine.
Christianity is relevant for your daily routine because it teaches what is valuable
We spend our time each day according to what we value. Your schedule reflects your priorities. Even if you don’t like an aspect of your routine, you do it because of the benefits it brings. If you don’t like work, you still go because of what it can give—money, etc.
On a sober note, you use your time whether or not you feel like using it—the clock is constantly ticking and you can’t stop getting older. But merely using your time doesn’t mean you’re using it on the right things—ever felt like you’ve wasted time? There is an intrinsic awareness that our time is valuable and we shouldn’t waste it.
According to Christianity, you are extremely important to God. And this means that your time is incredibly important. Your time is worth too much to be wasted on valuing things that aren’t actually valuable. For example, the American philosopher and pastor, Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758), wrote an entire sermon on the preciousness of time. And that is because the first Christian theologian, Paul, said, “Therefore, consider carefully how you live, not as unwise but as wise, making the most of the time because the days are evil.”
Since you are valuable, your time is valuable. So it is important that you don’t waste your time by valuing what isn’t important. And Christianity can teach you what is important and help you make the most of each day.
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According to Christianity, one very valuable part of life—and your daily routine—is people. A 75 year-long study by Harvard confirms what Christianity has propounded for almost two thousand years. The Harvard study and Christianity teach that a fulfilled life comes through deep and meaningful relationships.
Christianity teaches us what people are like, how God views people, why we exist, and the best way to interact so we can experience a kind of satisfaction only received from connecting with others.
Of course many days are ruined from bad spats. But isolating yourself can equally ruin your day by robbing you of quality time with others.
Christianity is able to improve your daily routine by improving your ability to connect with others. Paul Tripp is helpful for brief explanations as to how.
Christianity is relevant for your daily routine because it gives the best framework for interpreting your experience
I’m not saying Christianity solves all of our deepest confusions about life. But it provides the best framework for interpreting the world in which we live. It explains how the same husband who says, “I love you,” and showers his wife with flowers can also scream, “I hate you,” and leave her with a bruised cheek. Human nature has an incredible capacity for good, but it is also corrupted and in need of restoration.
We can show the most beautiful display of goodness as well as an equally horrific display of badness. No one is all bad nor all good. Everyone has a mixture of both. According to Christianity, the only way to subdue or overcome the bad nature inside of us is through a relationship with Jesus Christ who changes people from the inside out.
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Furthermore, Christianity imports meaning into the mundane aspects of life—God created us to live in the world. God created us to make our home here—to engage with others, to work, to build, to serve, to give, to eat, to create, to communicate, and to play. Such is the stuff of life for which God made us. But there is also the perennial feeling that this world is not as it should be. This is why you sometimes feel bored, separate from others, lie to avoid conflict, hate your job, and have to flee from hurricanes. The feeling exists because it’s true.
The word “gospel” means good news. Integral to the good news of Christianity is that the world will not always be as it is—God will remake it to exist as it should.
Christianity is relevant for your daily routine because it informs you of your own identity
You don’t have to spend your days trying to figure out who you are. Nor do you have to be someone you aren’t. It’s that simple. Christianity offers you answers to basic questions of life like, “Who am I? Where am I? Why do I exist? Where am I going?” along with others.
Many of us are taught to pursue goals to become something we aren’t sure we even want to become. We grow up embracing cultural assumptions regarding money, power, sex, status, and education because it’s just normal. While none of these aspects of life are inherently bad in-and-of themselves, they do not hold the true purpose for which we were made and, therefore, cannot give us the ultimate fulfillment we seek.
As an example, Brian Head Welch, the former singer of Korn, had all his dreams even surpassed, but didn’t find the kind of contentment he longed to experience.
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Christianity has the ability to prevent you from wasting time searching for what you want in places you can’t find it. And that involves the habits, routines, and rituals you practice each day.
Christianity is relevant for your daily routine because it reveals the God who created the universe
This is controversial and you may not like it…but here you go: you can’t find your true identity and why you were made by your own knowledge, will-power, and skills. Someone has to tell you. According to Christianity, the power that made the universe is a personable, knowable god who has supremely revealed himself in the life and teachings of a Jew who lived in the first century: Jesus of Nazareth.
Christianity teaches that God is in control of the world. He is involved with it and he cares about you and me who live in it. Jesus taught this and displayed it through his care for others. His followers preserved and expounded upon his message in what we call the New Testament—containing 27 writings.
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Christianity is relevant for your daily routine because you don’t have to search for who you are. You can actually be who you are. You don’t have to search for what makes life work or what makes life worth living. It helps you engage with both the good and the bad, the fun and the boring, the difficult and the easy.
If this was helpful, you may find this article to be helpful as well.