As I continued to walk in the rhythm of the Daily Office, I began to experience something that I had been longing for. There was a steadiness forming in my life with God. My days were no longer shaped only by urgency or responsibility. There were moments that invited me to pause, return, and remember. Scripture was becoming more familiar. Prayer was becoming more natural. My attention was slowly being redirected. The structure was doing something good in me.
It gave shape to my days. It created space for God in places where there had often been none. It helped me remain connected when I did not feel particularly focused or motivated. In many ways, it was a gift. It brought consistency where there had been inconsistency, and intention where there had been drift. And yet, over time, I began to notice something else. The same structure that was helping me could also begin to subtly shift my focus if I was not careful.
There were moments when I found myself thinking more about completing the pattern than encountering God. I could move through the readings, say the prayers, and check the box, all while my heart remained somewhat distant. What had begun as a means of connection could quietly become an end in itself. The rhythm was still present, but something deeper was missing. I began to realize that it is possible to be faithful to a practice and still miss the presence of God within it. It is possible to follow the structure and yet remain unchanged at the level of the heart.
This was not a failure of the practice. It was a misunderstanding of its purpose. The structure was never meant to carry the weight of transformation on its own. It was never meant to replace relationship. It was never meant to become the goal. It was meant to serve something greater. This realization did not cause me to step away from the practices. Instead, it began to change how I approached them. I started to slow down. I began to pay attention in a different way. I became less concerned with getting through the rhythm and more aware of being present within it. What I was beginning to discover was simple, but deeply important. The power was not in the structure. The structure was simply creating space for something else. And that something else was relationship. In the next part of this journey, that understanding would begin to deepen even further as I discovered that what I had been calling structure was actually pointing me toward something more living and more relational than I had first imagined. It was leading me toward rhythm.
Steve Lawes serves as the lead pastor of Keys Vineyard Church, founder of the Online Bible Institute Network, and leads the Christian Practices initiative through Tower of Praise, Inc. His heart is to help people grow in a steady and authentic relationship with God through simple, accessible rhythms of Scripture, prayer, and spiritual formation.
