I read somewhere that the average family has a revolving repertoire of around eleven main meals. If you try a new recipe (and the family likes it!), it goes on the list but something will generally fall off so that the meals you cook change but the variety of meals stays around the same. Is this true for you? I think it’s totally true for me. Caesar Salad drops off the once-a-week menu when the weather turns cold and stew makes a come back. If I find a new soup recipe the old soup favourite drifts away. (There are of course favourites which never change – I don’t think I could make it through life without spaghetti bolognese for example!)
But for me, it doesn’t just happen with what I cook, but also with other areas of life. I only have a certain amount of time, energy or attention to go around so if I decide I’m into knitting, the photo album I was working on begins to languish, stuck in 2009 when I last updated it. Realising all this – about my cooking and about myself – has got me thinking about how this affects my spiritual life. For example, I’m big into spiritual journaling, but I’ve started to do some private worship at home and I’ve realised I haven’t picked up my journal for ages.
There are so many things we can do to enrich and deepen our relationship with God, but we, well most of us anyway, probably can’t do it all at once. I think it’s natural that at times the Holy Spirit might lead us into something new; but hopefully there will be a few favourites – prayer, scripture reading - which always stay on our repertoire.
So don’t despair if you find change in your life means that some things aren’t getting done anymore. Remember the often quoted words of Ecclesiastes 3 -
1 For everything there is a season,
a time for every activity under heaven.”
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