New things in familiar places
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (News-Press NOW) -- I heard the story of an elderly man who revisited his hometown after many years away. As he walked through his old neighborhood, he noticed the house where he grew up was run down and looked as if it had been abandoned for years. Across the street, the home of his childhood best friend looked well kept. Just as he was wondering about this, a baseball landed at his feet and a young boy walked out to retrieve it.
"Sorry, mister," the boy said. "The ball got away from us."
"No problem," the man said. "I used to play in that same yard."
As they talked the man discovered that the little boy was the grandson of his childhood best friend. His friend had passed away and left the house to his son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren.
After hearing this, the boy asked why the man came back to visit the neighborhood. "This place reminds me of who I was," the old man said. "It reminds of where I came from, but it also reminds me of how far I have come in my life. These memories and familiar sites give me the encouragement to carry on."
Maybe this is why church life includes repetition. Church life and worship need not be boring, but there are many instances of repetition and tradition. For many, church services include familiar prayers and creeds repeated each week, familiar songs and even familiar passages of the Bible read and preached.
These familiar elements in a familiar place can simply be opportunities to go through the motions or to check something off our list. Or, they can be times to reacquaint us with God, with our faith and with others. Along the way, we can even rediscover something helpful and encouraging about ourselves. We remember and repeat not so that we can simply live in the past, but so that we can draw comfort and strength needed to move into our future.
For Christians, the same Jesus who said, "Follow me," also promised never to leave us abandoned. Revisiting the songs, prayers and relationships that first drew us to Christ can give us the peace and strength to serve Christ and follow in his ways in the future.
