Dr. Barclay with Something to Think About - FAMILIARITY

FAMILIARITY

There is a saying, “Familiarity breeds contempt," or as others put it: “Familiarity breeds complacency.” This really means that the more someone visits a place, repeats a performance or knows a person the more likely that someone is to find that place less exciting, that job less interesting, or that person less likable. We tend to focus more on the negative of a situation instead of the evident positives.  As a result, as situations are repeated, we tend to become more bored instead of excited, more lethargic instead of energized, and more critical instead of complimentary. 

It is for reasons such as these that revisiting the same locals often leads to disappointment, that people often seen to build up resentment against long term care-givers, and marriages become tenuous due to the build up of relatively minor issues. It’s also why we start to take for granted persons and institutions which have always seemed to be there; our spouse, our friends, our schools, our church. Sometimes it’s only after one is lost that it is truly appreciated.

Jesus himself apparently felt this as well. In Mark 6:1-6 we read:

Then He went out from there and came to His own country, and His disciples followed Him. 

And when the Sabbath had come, He began to teach in the synagogue. And many hearing Him were astonished, saying, “Where did this Man get these things? And what wisdom is this which is given to Him, that such mighty works are performed by His hands! 

Is this not the carpenter, the Son of Mary, and brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And are not His sisters here with us?” So they were offended at Him.

But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honour except in his own country, among his own relatives, and in his own house”

Now He could do no mighty work there,…

And He marveled because of their unbelief…

People in His own area did not believe in Jesus because they thought they knew Him, because they looked at what they believed He had been and failed to look at Him as He really was. They took it for granted that He was only a carpenter, and probably one of many.

How often do we take people for granted because we believe we know so much about them, or institutions such as schools, restaurants, or churches because they have always been there for us and always available for us at our convenience. Perhaps this is why people flock to schools and churches when they open up in an area where previously there were none yet often just don’t bother to attend in places where they were available all along.

Familiarity does breed complacency if not contempt. This is why Jesus “could do no mighty work there” and why we often take for granted people and institutions which are “always there.” Perhaps our present situation will help us to realize the “norm” may not always be so, and help us to appreciate more what we still have. It may also help us to realize that even Christ may be taken for granted.

Taking what we do have for granted is not something we should ever do but we often will if we don’t take time to think about it.