“The Disciplines” as the early church fathers called them are those activities that our “flesh” hates to do but are critically important to our relationship with God and our own spiritual and character growth. Bible reading, and prayer are the two most basic and most important of “The Disciplines”. The key for me to being faithful to these disciplines is establishing routines in my life that I keep. For the last four days and for the next three we have been camping and fishing at the Brownlee Resevior East of Baker City. It is really a struggle to stay faithful to the basic disciplines when your normal routines get all changed. It is easy to say, “oh well,it is just one week, it won’t matter if I read my Bible and pray for just a week”. As soon as I get back I will get right back at it. I know how easy it is to drift away from the Lord and to lose your momentum in growing in just a week and then never to regain what is lost. Most say,”won’t happen to me”, but it does. I want to finish my life well and not to coast even for a day. I fear losing my growth momentum because I see it happen to others all the time, especially during the summer when routines get out of whack because of vacations. So here I sit in a lawn chair at our campground after Midnight reading my Bible, praying for those at JBC and family, and writing this blog. Don’t mess up now Duke, you are to close to the finish line.