Ruts—Risk or Reward?

I’ve been on some really muddy roads in some very deep ruts.  In those slippery, muddy situations the ruts can be helpful. When your wheels are tracking in the rut, they protect you from slipping into a ditch—just follow the rut, and eventually you are led to a more drivable section of road.

However, by and large, I’m not a big rut fan.  It seems all of us can fall prey to life ruts.  Some might call them routines, and there is a similarity, but I imagine routines easier to break than escaping from deep ruts.  Life ruts aren’t normally something we chose but something that just happened while we were living life.

It might be the rut of a nice family tradition. That special place the family rendezvous annually. Could be a holiday rut. Or maybe one Sunday morning years ago one of the men in the family was up early and decided to make pancakes for the family.  It was a hit, so a few weeks later it happened again, and then again.  Before anyone realized it, there was this pancakes-fixed-by-one-of-the-guys-on-Sunday rut.  And over time when someone in the family wants something else for Sunday breakfast, or to go out, there is resistance because we find comfort in the rut. After all, it is “our” rut.

Whether we call them ruts or habits, routines or traditions, we’ve all got them.  Even the most avant-garde family member has them, even if they are simply the arguments against having them!

I’m not suggesting we shouldn’t have them, but I am suggesting that we could be healthier, freer, and more engaged with people in our communities if we would intentionally consider our ruts.  Since so many of them just happen while we are doing life, it is probable that some are really worth continuing, even fostering, while we would do well to jump from the deep track of many of our not-so-helpful ruts.

So I suggest that maybe you make list of your routines, habits, traditions, or ruts.  Then, as you have them in front of you, ask yourself these seven questions:

1.     If this wasn’t a rut, would I choose to spend my life this way?

2.     How does this rut make my life more difficult?

3.     And conversely, how does this rut make my life easier, better, richer?

4.     Would I have trouble defending this rut to a close friend or total stranger?

5.     Is this rut so important and valuable that I would invite others to join my rut?

6.     What might be a better option than this rut?

7.     Thinking wisely with good counsel in line with scripture, do I now consciously choose this “rut”—habit, routine, or tradition—as a valuable rut for me?

Since so many of our ruts “just happened” from living life, we have the freedom, the power, and maybe even the responsibility to think about life’s ruts.

A verse comes to mind with which I’ve taken a little liberty in the translation:

“There is rut that seems like the right rut but in the end it leads to death.” Proverbs 14:12

Just seems like a word of advice to all of us whose ruts may have become just a bit too comfortable.

Andy McDonald