There’s an interesting passage in the Old Testament that describes God making a covenant with Abram. You can read the whole thing for yourself in Genesis 15, but the part that stood out to me is found in verse 11:

“Some vultures swooped down to eat the carcasses, but Abram chased them away.” (Genesis‬ ‭15:11‬ ‭NLT‬‬)

It seemed like an odd detail to include. Abram is wondering how he can know for sure that God will do what He promised. God told Abram to put in place what was necessary for them to establish a covenant, and then Abraham chased away some vultures.

Can I remind you of something that we both already know? Vultures will always swoop in, and they will always try to steal your confidence. What we have to do is respond to them the same way Abram did: we’ve got to chase them away.

I don’t know what vultures you’re facing, what’s trying to steal your sacrifice, but you’ve got to chase them away. I can’t chase away your vultures and you can’t chase away mine. The enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy (see John 10:10) and the longer I live, the more convinced I am that his favorite tool for the job is distraction and busyness. A fast pace. A full plate.

Dallas Willard has impacted a generation with the simple, yet not so simply lived, encouragement to “ruthlessly eliminate hurry” from our lives. For me – and maybe for you – hurry is a vulture.

Today, I am choosing to chase it away.

I’m writing this as my car warms up. It was a cold night and there was quite a bit of frost on the windshield, and frost on the windshield makes it tough to see where you’re going when you drive.

In case you’re a rookie driver, seeing where you’re going while you’re driving is kind of critical. We walk but faith, not drive by faith.

There have been mornings in the past when I was in such a hurry getting ready – or so late getting out the door – that I forgot to warm up the car. Since I’m not the best Boy Scout (meaning I’m not always prepared), on those days I would find myself using a credit card to scrape the ice off the windshield so that I could get on the road. Also not having gloves on (again, not the best scout, right?) meant that I’d clear away the minimum amount necessary in order to leave which meant I’d be driving on the road – with other vehicles! – peering through a tiny clear spot on the windshield as I drove.

Not a good plan for driving.

Also not a good plan for living.

I think we would do well to learn how to develop the rhythm of “defrosting” our souls. Maybe a better way to think of it is that we need to learn the art of warming up our souls before jumping into the day, or the next task, or the next season.

Simply sitting and allowing the Holy Spirit to breathe some fire into our souls is a wonderful way to make sure we start anything the right way. It’s hard to accomplish great things with a cold soul. Worship music, a good audio book, or just the silence that speaks loudly of Who our God is are all good ways to thaw out our souls. You may even have other ways, too.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a car warmed up and ready, and I’m going to use the drive to do the same for my soul.

My normal writing routine is to write in the morning, but today, that didn’t happen. Since our church was back to its normal schedule after a break over the holidays, I found myself writing my daily post in the late afternoon instead of in the early morning hours.

It’s still getting done, but it’s been a little tougher doing it.

Rhythms are powerful because they help us develop consistency. They allow us to grow in our habits. But they have to be able to breathe on days when schedules are disrupted.

That’s the difference between rules and rhythms.

Rules are rigid.

Rhythms are flexible.

Rules break.

Rhythms bend.

Rules are enforced.

Rhythms are encouraged.

Grace is a rhythm. Breathe it in.