In a place filled with constant chaos and movement its very easy to find comfort in something familiar. Navigating life as a young person can be a wave of uncertainty and so, routine and stability is something we all search for in life.
Romantically, Financially and Emotionally we are all fighting for a moment in our life where we don’t need to worry about if we’re are behind or not.
This is something I actively felt myself searching for, my whole life. If I didn’t feel stable I simply didn’t feel safe in where I was in life. I didn’t feel complete.
I ask myself day to day what do I want? What is it that I’m searching for? As a recent graduate from an arts school in a simple hospitality job I yearn for something more. Yet how is everything I could ever want in life seems so far away?
I’m not asking to turn into a millionaire overnight, or live in a castle or even be famous. There’s something beautiful in the mundane, which is something people often overlook. I suppose all I’m really looking for is a chance, a chance to prove my skills and grow myself as a person.
A good friend of mine, John has been trying to coach me for the past two years. He says to me “Who is more important than you?” and I think, I can’t stop thinking. I have always placed people above me, because in my world I know I can handle pain, I can handle anything that comes my way. But he simply says to me “No one is more important in this world, we die the same, and although we may live different lives we are all just human”
The journey is far, it’s bumpy and that familiarity in routine keeps us sane. You start to pick up habits, a mental check list of what you need to do. Because doing something differently gives your mind a state of discomfort.
This is something I struggle with, and something I have only just explored in my own life. Yet there are people completely opposite, who thrive in the unexpected. Not sticking to a particular routine, it somehow makes them feel equally comfortable.
I suppose after a while of the same routine, you start to wonder where you are going in life? You start to think about impulses and what you can do to shake up your life. Yet inside my brain, If I go out for the evening I have this buzzing in my mind that I’d rather be at home watching a show or eating a nice meal in the comfort of my routine.
Maybe the answer isn’t choosing between the two. Maybe it’s not routine or the unexpected, stability or growth, but learning to hold both without feeling like I’m betraying myself in the process. John’s words still sit with me. No one is more important than me, and yet for so long I acted like everyone else’s comfort came before my own. Perhaps that’s where the real searching begins, not in finding the perfect job, the perfect relationship, or the perfect life, but in finally believing I’m allowed to want something for myself.
I don’t think the buzzing in my mind ever fully goes away. I don’t think I’ll wake up one day completely unbothered by change. But I’m starting to understand that discomfort isn’t always a warning sign, sometimes it’s just growth, dressed up as something scarier than it is. The routine that keeps me sane doesn’t have to disappear; it just has to leave a little room for the unfamiliar to walk in.
So maybe I’m still behind. Maybe I still don’t have the career, the security, the certainty I thought I’d have by now. But I’m learning that the chase for stability was never really about having everything figured out. It was about feeling safe enough within myself to handle whatever comes next. And that, I think, is a kind of stability no routine could ever give me.
-C
DEVOTION 
One response to “The Comfort of Routine”
This post reminds me of a poem I wrote called Searching. You’ve inspired me I think I might post it. Yes we all seem to be “searching” for something… it took me a while to figure it out but God showed me…it seems we all search for what God offers us. Love, Joy, Peace…. And purpose.
The biggest problem I have found, we look for these things in a world 🌎 that only offers us the counterfeit of these things… instead of seeking God who is willing and ready to provide the real thing. Real love. Real peace. Real joy.
Thank you for writing and sharing this, this is thought provoking ! 💛
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