In the Screwtape Letters a veteran demon tells the demon he is mentoring that “the horror of The Same Old Thing” is very effective in derailing humans. According to Scewtape, the veteran demon, it is “one of the most valuable passions we have produced in the human heart.” (C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, chapter 25)
I am afraid that most Christians in America today are looking for something brand new and fresh rather than “The Same Old Thing”. And the horror this is inflicting can be seen in the dissatisfaction of the churchgoer with “The Same Old Thing”.
God never changes. He is always the same.
God gave us His Word. It never changes. It will stand forever.
God worked in history to save us through the perfect life, death, and resurrection of His Son. This story never changes. It is always the same. It’s that “old old story” that we heard about long ago.
Christianity itself does not change.
We have an unchanging God who gave us His unchanging Word and in it we read of the salvation accomplished once for all time by God the Son. We have a faith that never changes. Never, ever, ever should we go chasing after the novel and disregard “The Same Old Thing”.
The Excitement Of Novelty
Who doesn’t love opening up their new toys? Tearing open that box to get out the newest gadget made by slave labor in China brings excitement to our hearts. And we continuously chase that excitement.
We shop for new cars. We shop for new games. We shop for new clothing. We shop for new guns. We go and do new things. We try new foods. We hike new trails. We jump out of helicopters. We seek after novel stuff and novel experiences. And then we go to church and look for novelty in our religion. We are hooked on a feeling. And that feeling is the excitement of the novel.
And when the excitement of the novel isn’t found because the pastor didn’t ride in on a Harley, drop from the ceiling in a superhero costume, or the fog machine didn’t have the proper affect on emotions people get upset. When the music wasn’t of the right variety for you to get the right feelings people are upset. When you’re hooked on a feeling then only things that bring that feeling are worth doing.
Exciting is not always good. I think we can all agree. Stealing someone else’s stuff is exciting. Going to a rally and bashing in businesses storefronts and cop cars is exciting. And blowing up your family to start up a relationship with another man’s wife is exciting. But in all of these situations the feeling of excitement comes as we dishonor others and break God’s Law.
Stealing, throwing a brick through a storefront, or being in an adulterous relationship may be new to you and exciting, but I hope we can all agree that they are awful.
And here is where I tell you that seeking after the excitement of the novel is dangerous in the Christian life. When the excitement of the novel is what we desire then the rather mundane steadfast faithfulness of Christianity seems rather unappealing.
God Calls Us To A Steadfast Faithfulness In The Same Old Thing
I have heard people say that they needed to seek after a certain feeling or emotion in the Christian life, as if liver shivers were the mark of truth. But that’s not what we are called to do. We are called to faithfulness in the old old story.
This does not mean that our lives are to be boring or somehow worth less. It simply means that we are to be faithful in a more rooted and grounded manner than is oftentimes pushed for in some Christian circles. As Michael Horton explains in his book “Ordinary”
“The key is a loving, patient, attentive care to the things that really matter–things that we’re likely to ignore in our overachieving rush to relevance and radical impact. Excellence means that whether God calls me to serve the poor in Calcutta or diners in a French restaurant, the simple fact that it is God’s calling renders it precious. “So…whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor 10:31)”
Michael Horton, Ordinary, 2014 p. 34
For most of us the call on our lives is very normal, some might even call it boring. And because of that we begin to think that what we do is worth less. But that is not the case.
We are called to live faithfully where we have been planted. God may move us to another venture but we are to live and work in a way that may not always be exciting, but God glorifying.
A Radically Different Perspective
A few days after reading “Radical” by David Platt, I read 1 Thessalonians 4 in my daily Bible reading. I noticed a massive incongruence between my perception of the book and what I found in the Scriptures.
There was much to commend in the book. The American Dream has caused believers in America to live rather comfortably and there is a seeming unwillingness to follow Christ in a number of areas. Yet, as I read it, I felt that I was unfaithful to Christ if I did not sell my house and live in a tent somewhere for the sake of the gospel. Then I read 1 Thessalonians 4.
Now as to the love of the brethren, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another; for indeed you do practice it toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia. But we urge you, brethren, to excel still more, and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands, just as we commanded you, so that you will behave properly toward outsiders and not be in any need.
1 Thessalonians 4:9-12 ESV emphasis added
These believers were to make living a quiet life their ambition. Well, that seems pretty ordinary, quiet, and not so “radical”.
Here is the point. God calls most of us to live rather normal and ordinary lives. But in the end we will find that this is in itself a different kind of exciting.
We Find That A Steadfast Faithfulness In The Same Old Thing Is Exciting
Eventually we figure out that there is a thrill to The Same Old Thing. It is the age old faith that God works in powerfully. Good works through His Word being preached, taught, and read through the power of His Spirit.
I am blessed to have been married for 12 years. We will have been married for 13 years in December. And there is something fulfilling and exciting about spending your life with someone, building a family together, and doing a whole lot of mundane things together that end up building wonderful things. And this is what God calls you to when you get married. The lifelong commitment of a man and a woman might seem unexciting and the world gives all kinds of excuses to not do it, but there is an excitement in what everyone else may think is mundane.
“Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”
Genesis 2:24 ESV
Jesus discussed this passage of Scripture and said,
“But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.””
Mark 10:6-9 ESV
This is steadfast faithfulness to a person of the opposite sex for the rest of your life. The constant search for novelty will destroy that steadfast faithfulness. The feeling of novelty that our culture seems desperately hooked on leads to the destruction of this beautiful union and the harming of many, many children caught in it.
I love to teach God’s Word to my children at home, because I know it’s through this rather mundane activity that God works. All the way back in Deuteronomy parents were told this is what they should do and God works in this.
“You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.”
Deuteronomy 6:7 ESV
There is nothing thrilling about gathering the family together to sing and read God’s Word together. We recite the Apostles’ Creed and recite the Lord’s Prayer together. Those are both very old and we do it repeatedly. And then we read from a very old collection of books called the Bible. To most people this is mundane, but to God this is part of being faithful.
I love to preach God’s Word, because I know that this “Same Old Thing” that people have been doing for 1,000’s of years is the means by which God calls people to Himself and nourishes His people. It is in this “Same Old Thing” that God works.
God calls us to live with a steadfast faithfulness, whether life feels like a thrill or not.
“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.”
Hebrews 10:23 ESV
Christian, we are called to a steadfast faithfulness. That most often does not come with butterflies in the stomach or shivering of the liver. But it does come with the rewards of faithfulness.
R. Dwain Minor
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