How much happens without us realizing it? You can list the sun rising. Oxygen goes into our lungs. Electricity power our homes. Right now, our eyes process the words off this screen to our brain creating thoughts in a matter of seconds. It’s not that we don’t know these activities happen, rather we see these as commonplace or monotonous.
New gives freshness. The romantic idea of starting energizes us. We find ourselves heading into mid-January. Some of us live in the winter reality where resolutions freeze. The change we so hoped to experience may have gone off track reverting to the old way of life.
Over and over again the Scriptures, Old and New Testament, express God’s faithfulness. Found in one of the most dismal book of the Bible, Lamentations, the author speaks of mercy coming “…new every morning…” (Lam. 2:22-24) Paul later teaches the Thessalonian church of about maturity saying of Jesus, “The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.” (I Thes. 5:24)
Perhaps, somewhere we have lost a vision of faithfulness. The wonder of repetition gets lost. Our minds run a thousand thoughts a minute without the ability focus. People disappoint us. The characteristic of faithfulness seems archaic and old fashioned because we have never committed long enough to experience it.
G.K. Chesterton in Orthodoxy provides a glorious insight of God’s faithfulness in his book Orthodoxy. Just like a child who asks an adult in wonder to “Do it again,” Chesterton sees God repetition:
It is possible that God says every morning, “Do it again” to the sun; and every evening, “Do it again” to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we. The repetition in Nature may not be a mere recurrence; it may be a theatrical encore.
Faithfulness brings us wonder. It starts with our view of Christ’s grace in our lives. We never graduate from understanding the Good News of the Gospel. Because of His faithfulness in coming to earth, His death, and resurrection, you and I can experience new life. The sunrise becomes a repetitive reminder of His work in our lives.
Genuine growth and change happen in our lives by responding to Christ’s faithfulness. It requires faith in Christ to engage Scripture, pray and live in community with others on a daily and weekly basis. The transformation happens at varying rates. Sometimes we radically experience it in a moment and often it seems mundane. We never actually understand this faithfulness until we look back.
Friendships form out of faithfulness. The people who matter the most in your life show up. Extending faithfulness to another points them to the reality of Christ’s grace. Sometimes it means saying “yes” to the extra mile when every feeling in you says “no.” The wonder of faithfulness happens because trust develops. Not in perfection, but rather trust that points all of us to how we can see Christ in our lives.
May we never lose the wonder of Christ’s faithfulness, so that we might recognize faithfulness all around us. Do not lose heart in the midst of change, growth, and maturity. Today, you have the opportunity experience faithfulness in your life with God, others, and yourself. “Do it again.”
What faithfulness will you experience today?
Photo by Tom Sodoge.