One of the most dangerous yet subtle enemies in our lives is a thing called familiarity.
It is so easy to take things in life for granted – to become familiar with them.
When things are new and fresh they often have a lot of excitement linked to them.
Here are a few examples …
- We start out at a new job … how cool.
- We fall in love with someone … how romantic.
- We have our first child … how exciting.
- We move into a new home … how fun.
- We make a new friend … how wonderful.
But if we’re not careful before long … the precious becomes common and romance becomes routine. The novelty wears off and we’ve been trapped … by familiarity.
If you want to break familiarity, then remember the ‘specialness’ of those things and people in your life. Reflect back to what it used to be and start to relive those thoughts and feelings. Keep your emotions free from negativity. Keep a grateful attitude. Don’t take things or people for granted. See them for how valuable and precious they really are.
Familiarity … Think about it.
Thank you, Mark, for this. I hope you don’t mind if I look at the issue of “familiarity” from a different angle. “Familiarity” often takes away our initial excitement. Equally the mundane things in life can distract us from the things that really matter. We were touched by God’s love when we first believed, but over time the daily issues of life distract us from serving God in response to his love for us.
For example, this week we heard of numerous stories from Indigenous people about the pain they went through and the joy they experience when they heard the word “sorry”. We went through a very emotional time as a nation. We said that we would get on with the job to heal this nation.
But most of us (non-Indigenous people) may well forget about our Indigenous neighbours soon as we get on with “our” lives. But the fact is that our God, who walked on the earth among the poor and dispossessed, who was a refugee as a child, who dined with the most marginalised people (the lame, the lepers, the tax-collectors, etc) will not forget our Indigenous people – whose living standard is way below the average Melbournians who live in half-million-dollar houses.
I have made some suggestions regarding what we can do in your previous blog. I hope they will be helpful. (Sorry again for changing the subject a little bit.)
http://markconner.typepad.com/catch_the_wind/2008/02/saying-sorry.html
Indeed, it may be good to pause in our weekend services to pray for our nation that the healing process will continue, and that the church will be committed to this process of healing.
Siu-Fung