{"id":760,"date":"2005-11-30T17:38:00","date_gmt":"2005-11-30T17:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/bibleandculture\/2005\/11\/creatures-of-habit.html"},"modified":"2005-11-30T17:38:00","modified_gmt":"2005-11-30T17:38:00","slug":"creatures-of-habit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2005\/11\/creatures-of-habit.html","title":{"rendered":"Creatures of Habit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Creatures of habit,<br \/>Day after day<br \/>Go about life,<br \/>The same old way. <\/p>\n<p>Nothing disturbs<br \/>Their orderly routine<br \/>All must be neat,<br \/>And all must be clean.<\/p>\n<p>They\u2019re making their lists<br \/>And checking them twice,<br \/>Trying to make sure<br \/>Their work will suffice.<\/p>\n<p>Impatient by nature<br \/>They don\u2019t suffer fools<br \/>Gladly or otherwise<br \/>Because of the rules.<\/p>\n<p>A place for everything<br \/>For all there\u2019s a place<br \/>Don\u2019t touch the guest towels<br \/>But please wash your face.<\/p>\n<p>They insist on living<br \/>Orderly lives,<br \/>And of course only marry<br \/>Orderly wives.<\/p>\n<p>Their homes antiseptic<br \/>Their cars always clean,<br \/>Their food always healthy<br \/>Their meat always lean.<\/p>\n<p>Like ants in an ant hill,<br \/>Repeating their tasks<br \/>Rest in repetition<br \/>Ignore the mask.<\/p>\n<p>Chaos is forbidden<br \/>Experiment absurd<br \/>Don\u2019t ask for creative<br \/>Don\u2019t mention the word.<br \/>Creatures of habit,<br \/>By whose design?<br \/>Is this just human,<br \/>Or is it divine?<\/p>\n<p>What if we found<br \/>That ordering our sphere,<br \/>Is just a misnomer<br \/>For controlling our fear?<\/p>\n<p>Fear of the truth,<br \/>Fear of falling<br \/>Fear of the unknown,<br \/>Fear of our calling<\/p>\n<p>Fearing to let go,<br \/>Fearing to try,<br \/>Fearing to live,<br \/>And fearing to die.<\/p>\n<p>An unknown poet said it<br \/>Muse in the machine<br \/>It suggests new direction<br \/>By which we come clean.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s the heart afraid of breaking.<br \/>That never learns to dance,<br \/>It\u2019s the dream afraid of waking<br \/>That never takes a chance.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s the one who won\u2019t be taken<br \/>Who cannot seem to give,<br \/>And the soul afraid of dying,<br \/>That never learns to live.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps if we surrender<br \/>Control of our lives,<br \/>And offer ourselves<br \/>To all seeing eyes<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ll find a new freedom<br \/>Though not out of bounds<br \/>For when he controls us<br \/>The order\u2019s profound.<\/p>\n<p>Let go of the death grip,<br \/>You have on your life<br \/>Inhibit your habits<br \/>Without artifice.<\/p>\n<p>Accept serendipity,<br \/>Free by design<br \/>Eat the new manna<br \/>Drink the new wine.<\/p>\n<p>Come to the manger<br \/>Kneel at the throne<br \/>Realize your ruler<br \/>Won\u2019t leave you alone.<\/p>\n<p>Celebrate Christmas<br \/>Deliverance declare<br \/>You\u2019re freed to inhabit<br \/>A creature\u2019s full share.<\/p>\n<p>Dec. 1 2005<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Creatures of habit,Day after dayGo about life,The same old way. Nothing disturbsTheir orderly routineAll must be neat,And all must be clean. They\u2019re making their listsAnd checking them twice,Trying to make sureTheir work will suffice. Impatient by natureThey don\u2019t suffer foolsGladly or otherwiseBecause of the rules. A place for everythingFor all there\u2019s a placeDon\u2019t touch the&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":199,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Creatures of Habit - The Bible and Culture<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2005\/11\/creatures-of-habit.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Creatures of Habit - The Bible and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Creatures of habit,Day after dayGo about life,The same old way. Nothing disturbsTheir orderly routineAll must be neat,And all must be clean. They\u2019re making their listsAnd checking them twice,Trying to make sureTheir work will suffice. Impatient by natureThey don\u2019t suffer foolsGladly or otherwiseBecause of the rules. 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A place for everythingFor all there\u2019s a placeDon\u2019t touch the&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2005\/11\/creatures-of-habit.html","og_site_name":"The Bible and Culture","article_published_time":"2005-11-30T17:38:00+00:00","author":"Ben Witherington","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2005\/11\/creatures-of-habit.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2005\/11\/creatures-of-habit.html","name":"Creatures of Habit - The Bible and Culture","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/#website"},"datePublished":"2005-11-30T17:38:00+00:00","dateModified":"2005-11-30T17:38:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/d1fd6c7893819eabc624db38ecfd8426"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2005\/11\/creatures-of-habit.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2005\/11\/creatures-of-habit.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2005\/11\/creatures-of-habit.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Creatures of Habit"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/","name":"The Bible and Culture","description":"All Things Biblical and Christian","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/d1fd6c7893819eabc624db38ecfd8426","name":"Ben Witherington","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/75e\/75ec11e1916a2008bc4cc638a0a0de2fx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/75e\/75ec11e1916a2008bc4cc638a0a0de2fx96.jpg","caption":"Ben Witherington"},"description":"Bible scholar Ben Witherington is Amos Professor of New Testament for Doctoral Studies at Asbury Theological Seminary and on the doctoral faculty at St. Andrews University in Scotland. A graduate of UNC, Chapel Hill, he went on to receive the M.Div. degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. from the University of Durham in England. He is now considered one of the top evangelical scholars in the world, and is an elected member of the prestigious SNTS, a society dedicated to New Testament studies. Witherington has also taught at Ashland Theological Seminary, Vanderbilt University, Duke Divinity School and Gordon-Conwell. A popular lecturer, Witherington has presented seminars for churches, colleges and biblical meetings not only in the United States but also in England, Estonia, Russia, Europe, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Australia. He has also led tours to Italy, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Jordan, and Egypt. Witherington has written over thirty books, including The Jesus Quest and The Paul Quest, both of which were selected as top biblical studies works by Christianity Today. He also writes for many church and scholarly publications, and is a frequent contributor to the Beliefnet website. Along with many interviews on radio networks across the country, Witherington has been seen on the History Channel, NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, The Discovery Channel, A&amp;E, and the PAX Network.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/author\/bwitherington"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/199"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}