I’m not sure this is correct grammatically but I think rut is the plural of routine.  While we need routines, too much and too many can leave us like the little slot car racers – running at top speed around and around in our little slot,  never seeing or doing anything new, challenging or horizon expanding.  Growth requires we let God pop us out of our predictable race car “slot” sometimes and “go where no man has gone before”.  (OK, somebody at sometime has probably gone there before. I just couldn’t resist the Star Trek reference.)

But I have found when God takes us to a new level – you know, that “glory to glory” thing – that we always walk close to the slot, the old rut.  When we get tired, discouraged or just lazy, it is easy to kick back into the old habits, the old way of doing things, the familiar “rut-ine”.

It requires energy, effort, thought and intentionality to continue to “go where no man has gone before”, to press on to new experiences, to “risk the glorious”, to “press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called” us.  Life is walked close to the rut, just a step or two away from slipping back into mediocrity and irrelevance.

I encourage you to stay out of the “rut-ines” of life.  God has greater, richer, higher, deeper experiences for all of us but they will only be experienced by those willing to take the risk, leave the slots and ruts of life behind to follow Him.  Maybe that means doing something in a new way.  Maybe it means just doing something in a way you have never done it before or trying something you aren’t sure you can succeed at.  But if we want something to change, then something has to change.  If we want to make a difference, we have to be different.

But isn’t that risky?  Of course!  Faith requires risk.  No risk = no faith.  No faith = no seeing God do awesome things on your behalf.  So go for it.  Jump up to the next level and leave your rut, your predictable slot in life. See what God will do when you give Him a chance.