We are creatures of habit. I looked at the drawer where Anabelle found my lost wallet several times but I did not notice it. The top of that drawer was not one of the usual places where I would usually – habitually – put down my wallet. I looked at that place and of course I did not see the wallet because it was not supposed to be there. I searched thoroughly and several times over the usual places and of course did not find the missing wallet. My usual routine in the morning is to bring Jonathan and Jane to school and Martin to the train station. There are times during the day when I have to go out to run some errands. There are many times I would find myself driving to the kids’ schools or Martin’s train station and then I realize I was supposed to be driving elsewhere.
I wake up in the morning, happy to see another day but taking it for granted. The sun did not owe it to me to come up this morning. I take for granted the fact that I woke up is the gift of yet another day. I take so many things for granted: newspaper at our doorstep in the morning, mail delivered in the mailbox, food available on the table, movies at the mall for our entertainment. The people who made all these accessible to me probably did them out of habit and because it is their job to do so. Still, they could have chosen not to. The freedom they have is still an indication of the love there is for me.
I can also put love in the routine and habitual things that I do: driving for the family, running errands, doing housework, writing blogs, teaching, going to school, hiking. I shall consciously do these out of love for the people I do them for – complete with the sweet emotions I usually associate with loving. Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, one of the greatest saints in modern times, did not anything epically heroic. She did very ordinary things extraordinarily by doing them consciously with love.
Jesus cried aloud, ‘Whoever believes in me believes not in me but in him who sent me. And whoever sees me sees him who sent me. I have come as light into the world, so that everyone who believes in me should not remain in the darkness. I do not judge anyone who hears my words and does not keep them, for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.
John 12:44-50