pramsay posted on September 09, 2008 19:40 1883 views

Revamping your ADL

Perhaps you’re not familiar with the acronym ADL – Activities of Daily Living. If you work with people who have been restricted in some way or injured you probably know about the routines that are officially classified as the activities of daily living. Mobility, Communication, Breathing, Bowel and bladder management, Eating and drinking, Personal cleansing and grooming, Personal device care (i.e. hearing aids, glasses etc.), Controlling body temperature, Work and play, Sexuality, and Sleeping.

Have you ever classified what you do in the run of a day into those categories? Within each of those categories, people are ranked as to their current abilities and potential.

Maybe you have other routine daily activities that come to your mind like: check the weather forecast every day; read the job ads every day; check the stocks every day; jog or go to the gym every morning; stop at the coffee shop every day. If something is of great interest to us we have no difficulty doing it every day. If we’re sold on it then we can quickly incorporate it into our daily activities.

Missing from the official ADL and perhaps the augmented list of searching for jobs and drinking coffee daily, is the critical function of ‘Spiritual Activity’ – the person’s ability to connect with God, to enjoy His presence, to honor Him in their lives and to do His will.

The Psalmist with joy and devotion wrote these words:

Seek the LORD, and his strength:

seek his face evermore.

Psalm 105:4 KJV

The expression ‘seek his face evermore’ could easily be passed over as a motherhood and apple-pie statement. For a Christian the ‘evermore’ takes us right into our eternal occupation with Christ. Yes, that’s delightful but how does it grab me today? Another rendering of that phrase is:

“Seek His presence continually!”

Psalm 105:4 ESV

Continually! Daily! For a Christian, seeking His presence should be a normal activity of daily living. If a therapist was scoring us on their ADL scale to determine our level of functionality in all dimensions, how would we score in this critical area? We may score highly on our ability to eat, or brushing our teeth. We might have the capacity to tie our laces. We may score highly on our ability to engage in aerobics or to bench press more than the average guy. We may also tell our therapist that we never let a day pass without checking the performance of our stocks or without taking a peek at eBay. Somehow, we do some of these things faithfully and continually.

But what about seeking His presence continually? Do I seek the Lord every day? Do I receive His strength each and every day? Am I conscious of my need to be alone with Him every single day?

Enjoying Christ and benefiting from our relationship with God is the normal activity of daily living for a true child of God. The days when we are missing that activity are bad and abnormal days for a Christian.

The Apostle Paul felt the wear and tear of Christian service. It sure wasn’t an easy road for him on his journey home to Heaven, but despite what was happening to him outside he said: “Yet the inner man is being renewed day by day.” 2Corinthians 4:16

Is reading your Bible and talking with the Lord on your ADL list? If not, do you have the will to revamp your schedule and make it a daily routine? Until you do, you will be the loser.

Walk carefully and closely with the Lord today.

Warmly in Christ

Peter Ramsay

peter@heaven4sure.com

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