We’ve been talking for the last couple of days about becoming peaceful people who can thrive in chaos. This is incredibly important as the world we live in becomes more and more fast-paced. Today, I want to share with you something that I believe will enable you to live as a rooted and grounded individual in spite of constant movement around you: develop a rhythm in your life.

Over the next few days, I’m going to share with you a routine that I go through every morning to help me mentally and spiritually prepare for my day. However, before I start, I want you to know that I’m not trying to turn this into legalism and I don’t want you to feel like you have to do things exactly like I do. In fact, I encourage you to develop your own rhythm and routine; one that works for you and fits with your lifestyle. No matter what you do, the key is to make it a consistent practice.

My routine typically consists of 5 steps and takes about an hour; I’ll call it my “morning meditation.” First of all, I get up at 5:15 every day (yes, even on Saturdays…I always thought I wasn’t a morning person until I realized that if I go to bed on time, getting up early is no problem). After I wake up, the very first thing I grab is a cup of coffee, along with a large glass of water (because most mornings we wake up dehydrated). With coffee and water in hand, I go to a little desk in my office and I spend about five minutes practicing the first step of my routine — meditating on Scripture.

Meditation is a Jewish and Christian thing to do, although it sounds “new agey.” In fact, in 18 different places in the Bible it says to meditate on Scripture, while it only says four times to study it. In essence, to meditate means that you stop thinking about other things and you try and focus your mind exclusively on what you are saying. I typically practice this using a familiar passage of Scripture, like Psalm 23 or The Lord’s Prayer, and I say one verse at a time while I breathe deeply, both inhaling and exhaling on a different thought. I will sometimes combine this with worship and just lift up the name of Jesus, which creates a great atmosphere for the next step, which we’ll talk about tomorrow.