When this blog started, we read and wrote our way through the Gospel of Matthew. It seemed a good place to start. A few years later, I went back to the posts about what we call “The Sermon on the Mount” and put it into a book. For me, it’s a good time to go back to those writings.

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The way we live is a routine. When we get up, which path we take to work, what we do at work, how we spend our time when we have a choice, how we react when we don’t have a choice.

A routine is simply a set of thoughts and behaviors performed consistently. Gymnasts have routines. Actors have onstage routines, called scripts. And off-stage routines, called warmups. Parents create bed-time routines for their children.

We often find our routines to be routine, unexciting. We want to change them, to find excitement. And change is exciting. It throws everything off. But eventually, even the novelty becomes a routine and becomes routine.

Unless we find a template, a proven technique. Someone else’s routine. I’ve done this often, looking at time management tools, attention management tools, life management tools. So have you. When we’re done, we have built a collection of techniques. And we live our routine better, but sometimes we still wonder why we are doing this.

That’s because routines are how to live. They need to have a why.

There are lots of whys available as well. And rather that look at all the options, I want to pick one and look at it. I want to invite you to spend some time with me looking at a sermon where Jesus describes learning a new routine.

This sermon answers a simple question: What does the routine of the kingdom of heaven look like? Before we can look at the sermon, to even understand the question, we need to look at Jesus.