“And their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote…” (Isaiah 29:13)
Many things in life are learned ‘by rote’. Anything you learn through habitual repetition is learned ‘by rote’. We learn our ABC’s that way, or how to throw a baseball, and how to say the Pledge of Allegiance. We learn the action so that we can do it without even thinking – it just comes automatically.
Learning ‘by rote’ is a great way to learn things that you want to be able to do while thinking about other things, but it has its disadvantages. One major problem with ‘by rote’ is that we can begin to do it and forget what it means. If you sing spiritual songs ‘by rote’ you can say all the right words and do it on key, but completely forget how powerful ‘Amazing Grace’ is. Or perhaps you can recite the 23rd Psalm by heart but don’t stop to think about the tremulous beauty of God leading us through the valley of the shadow of death in all of our lamb-like vulnerability.
The actions become automatic and the reverence is lost. We must be careful to avoid this type of ritualized Christianity. The behavior is good, the repetition is good, but it isn’t enough.
Perhaps, a well-timed shakeup of our regularly scheduled lives can be a blessing in disguise to help us remember that reverence isn’t the same as routine? After all, nobody gets to heaven ‘by rote’.
Matthew 4:4 #Biblebites