Keep on keeping on

The start of a new year is often met with resolutions and hope of new beginnings. An all-time favourite item on many a list is physical fitness, sometimes even backed up by gym sign ups. Some gym subscribers barely make a start before they abandon the project, others persevere a bit longer, keeping up with the repetitive nature of the commitment.

Revisiting the subject of familiarity, a factor worth considering is repetition. A repetitive cycle may eventually lead to monotony when the basis for repetition is merely assumed and not justifiably known or derived. A person who enrols in a gym or begins a new diet plan, without considering his/her underlying motive and cost will easily give up when the stakes get higher. This is mostly due to the tenaciously repetitive nature of such commitments.

Admittedly, most of life is monotonous. Hard as it is to imagine, impulsive people are not excluded from this reality, as their unintended lack of defined cycle eventually becomes the ‘cycle’ that governs their lives.

Repetition is not a problem when the activity is something we enjoy, but the narrative changes when it’s something we loathe. And that is when familiarity starts building some form of sentiment, giving way to contemptuous attitudes.

When it comes to familiarity with God, the problem of superficial familiarity is magnified in our ‘pseudo-Christian’ culture, where a supposition about God is assumed to be an implicit part of life. Alas, such assumption when examined might prove totally false. It seems people increasingly don’t want to engage with the possibility of a God out there, while others will be comfortable with an unknown god, hence the atheist’s indifference, and the theist’s nomilalism.

Shedding the cloak

The remedy to ‘false familiarity’ is a well balanced knowledge of God, which primarily comes to us through the Bible. If the wonder and joy of studying the Bible are lost, it is only a matter of time before the life of a Christian becomes a joyless burden, laden with much pretence and hypocrisy.

It is therefore important for Christians to be watchful for symptoms of false familiarity in their lives, and be relentless in rediscovering the surprise and wonder of God through His word. Jen Wilkin, in her book Women of the Word, suggests that “the woman who loses interest in her Bible hasn’t been equipped to love it as she should. The God of the Bible is too lovely to abandon for lesser pursuits”. I guess the same goes for the man as well!

The landscape is vast, and there is treasure to be found. Let’s keep up with the repetitive nature of digging daily, in anticipation that today is the day we’ll find treasure.

Thanks for reading!

Sike Osinuga