We love the familiar.
I’m famous for that at restaurants.
Not really wanting to try a new restaurant.
And even at a familiar restaurant, only ordering the same old thing instead of trying a new entrée. Why do I do that? Two words. It’s safe.
I only shop at one grocery store. Why?
I know where everything is and I’m comfortable there.
It seems faster and easier than going somewhere else, even if they have the same stuff, just in a different place.
Ever been overseas and found a familiar brand or restaurant? Why is that so thrilling?
When I lived in Spain, everything I did, every place I went, everything I ate, was a cross-cultural experience. After a while, I was starved for the familiar. Even to the point of having my mom mail me a box of Kraft macaroni and cheese. (I am being vulnerable here because honestly Kraft mac and cheese is pretty disgusting—how could thatbe the thing I craved? But it was!) I remember when it came in the mail and the Señora fixed it for my roommate and I. You would have thought we had died and gone to heaven. All for that familiar cheese sauce that is really not that good. But it was a taste of home.
Most of us like the familiar.
Because, let’s face it, it is “the known.” The comfortable. The safe.
We have to be careful, though.
The familiar can become an enemy of stepping out and following God’s call.
-Think if Abraham and Sarah had never left Ur.
-Or if David had never fought Goliath.
-Or if the disciples had never followed Jesus.
You can fill in pretty much any Bible character.
They had to take a risk to receive God’s blessing and experience his adventure.
In my experience, God does not call us to the familiar.
Instead, he calls us out of our habits, out of our comforts, and out of our normal into the unknown.
But that’s where he can reveal his provision, his power, and his faithfulness.
The choice is ours.