There are some people who walk through life leaving imprints of sparkle and magic wherever they go. Their life permeates with vibrancy, bright colors, rich flavor, and soulful depth. They live life everyday as their last as if they are not guaranteed tomorrow. They do not default on auto-pilot or are defeated by the mundane of life.
Something my pastor says that has caused me to reflect and look deep within myself is this simple statement: “Familiarity breeds contempt”.
Simply, the more you know, the less you respect or honor.
I saw this evident in my life where familiarity caused me to become jaded or numb to certain miracles in my life. I have been re-reading the birth and crucifixion of Jesus in the Gospels, and as someone who has been a Christian since middle school, I realized how easily it is to treat the miracle of my salvation as a common thing.
How much more do we treat other smaller miracles in our life as common? Such as the miracle of our breath, that right now your heart is beating, and you get to live and be anything you desire to be.
We treat our ability to work with contempt at times because it has grown too familiar, too much of a routine, when maybe it was a job you were praying for years ago.
We treat our relationships, marriages, and friendships with contempt at times when you feel you have really gotten to know this person, we tend to assume, score-keep, and be quicker to hold grudges and less prone to forgive and give them the benefit of the doubt.
We treat the present moment with contempt because for the last X amount of years you have been living on this earth, it has grown way too familiar. The sun rises, and the sun sets, and seeing so many, days begin to blur, and the miracle of living another day loses its luster when it is meant to sparkle and shine.
God, the Divine, our Source Energy, the Love of this Universe, desires to raise our vibrancy, shine up our sparkle, and infuse us with power to live the more abundant, passionate, overflowing life of bright colors, rich flavor, and soulful depth.
It begins with not treating familiarity with contempt rather choosing to truly wake up, eyes wide, and soul present to the miracles around us. Engage with God this week in a new way. If you feel like God and this life has become familiar, you haven’t taken new risks, unfamiliar leaps of faith, or uncomfortable steps out of your comfort zone in a while.
You can be that person that leaves imprints of sparkle and magic; step out of the familiar into the unfamiliar, the unknown, and choose to wake up to the adventure God has for you in this beautiful and sacred life.