Is your commute the same each day? You leave the house at the same time. You take the same route each day. You pass the same cars, and get passed by the same cars. You listen to the same thing each morning. You eat the same thing for lunch each day. Your life has become a routine. A set symphony where you know the next note. You are so familiar with your day, week, or routine that it has become ordinary. Do you remember what it was like the first time you took that trip? Ate that? Drank that? Did that?
If you are like me, then you have grown up within the Church. From my first Sunday on this Earth, my parents had me in Church. I grew up in one of those families that were at the Church anytime the doors were open. Our Sunday mornings, evenings, and Wednesday nights were already planned for the foreseeable future. I was in every Sunday school class, youth group, and sermon series. I am grateful that my parents saw this as a key thing in my upbringing.
Because of my upbringing though I have grown up hearing God’s Word constantly. I have probably had a sermon preached from every book of the Bible. I have heard many of the same passages proclaimed passionately from the pulpit. I have heard many of the same illustrations. I have played many of the same youth games. I have sat in the same pew so many times that there was that unofficial name plate grooved in from my backside.
While this is a blessing, it can also be a curse. Many times I find myself looking at what has become familiar, as ordinary. I can recite all the verses to Hymn #2 “Holy, Holy, Holy”, but it seems to have lost it’s meaning somewhere for me. When I walk into a Church and grab a bulletin, and see that John 3:16 is the text for this morning, I am already tuning it out and thinking about lunch. The act of taking communion has become less about the sacrifice that my Savior has paid upon the cross with His blood, and more about the type of bread and juice that the leadership chose. (Hope they chose that really good bread again, and not the soup crackers) Many times for me the familiar has turned into something ordinary.
There is a great reason these have become familiar. These passages, songs, and actions become familiar because they are some of the most important tenants of our faith. The reason that John 3:16 has become so familiar is because it is so important. Do you understand how incredible that verse is? Although we can never read it like we did for the very first time; try. Don’t let what has become familiar become ordinary.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.