Familiarity & Routine

Hey guys, I hope you’re enjoying this Christmas season!
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I’ve been at school the last 4 months just like a lot of you guys have been, I’ve seen the same people for the last 4 months just like you guys have. You see some of your friends just as much as your family. Everything ends up becoming a routine. It becomes a routine we live for and not so much of the purpose which we live for that God has graciously given us. There have been a couple times over the last 4 months that I have asked God, 'Why am I even going to school?' And the answer I always seem to get is to show love and grace. The second answer I received was to not get caught in my own excess familiarity of my now daily routine of school and other things in my life that further breed contempt.

Familiarity breeds contempt. So, what does that mean? The more you know something or someone, the more you start to find faults and dislike things about it or them. This something or someone that meant a lot to you in the past, now just lay there in the dust. You forget how much that was once worth to you, it’s still worth that much but you haven’t taken the time and effort to love it as you once did. Yeah, it’s pretty harsh isn’t it...

As I have come to realize through reading some books, a few experiences, and cases in the Bible, I have learned that familiarity truly does breed contempt. Like I said before, school has definitely felt like a forced routine. I see all these students and I can easily point out all of my friend's faults. And I have pointed out their faults on a daily basis but I never did anything about it because I thought there was no point in trying to change someone when they just continually live in sin. But what can I say, I’m the exact same! That’s where God has changed my heart in many ways over the last couple months. That change in a person comes through Christ, not me. 

​As time has gone by, I’ve had buddies of mine come to Church and Bible Study, which in previous times I would’ve just ignored and judged them. They are buddies that I've known even before high school, and now I'm in my last year of high school. That means I’ve known them a long time. So to say I'm familiar with them is an understatement, we're more like brothers. Since we're like brothers, we can get tired of each other, we can get into fights, and we know how to get under each other's skin. This is one of the reasons I was starting to quit on my best friends because they didn't seem to be following the way of the Lord.

​On the same, I wasn't following the way of the Lord either, I just sat there judging them not thinking they deserve God’s grace that I had experienced. Instead, God has been using me in ways that I could never have imagined, with friends of mine who have never really known who God is. Now it seems as if my friends who never knew God really do. It’s been amazing to see first hand what God can do with broken people, broken people like myself. That's to say everyone deserves a chance at God’s grace if they are willing to accept it. 

​1 Corinthians 11:26
“For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.” 

Jesus tells his people that familiarity should not breed contempt, but really familiarity should breed love. We are called to proclaim the Lord’s death and resurrection through our words and actions.

​So, I leave you all with this challenge: I encourage you guys to go to that all-too-familiar friend at your all-too-familiar place of school or wherever that may be for you and show them the way of Jesus Christ.

Finally, as we go into the Christmas season, don’t let the birth of the King get all-too-familiar, don’t get annoyed by it because you’re listening to it for the hundredth time. Soak it in and remember that this humble man was born in an inn and then grew up to save us ALL from death. Just remember that..  

On that note, I’ll be praying for all y’all and the exciting times that are to come to Camp this summer. I hope to see you all there! 

​Blessings, Chihuahua