We Have Always Done It That Way

They say that the seven most expensive words in business are, "We have always done it that way."  We really are creatures of habit.  We can get into a way of thinking where what we are doing long outlives the why we are doing it.  These "costs" might be literal money or it may cost us the opportunity of having a greater impact.

There is this old joke where a new wife is cooking a roast.  She takes a knife and cuts off each end before putting it in the pan.  Her husband asks why she does this and is told, that it lets the juices flow better and her mother has always done it like that.  

Some time later they are at her mother's home.  She is cooking a roast and has cut the ends off.  The young husband asked his mother-in-law why.  She told him that it allows the heat into the center of the roast better and besides, her mother always did it that way.

More time passes and they are at Grandma's house.  She is cooking a roast.  Sure enough, she has the ends cut off.  The young husband sees this and asks her why.  She says "The roast that the butcher sells is a little too big for my pan. I have to cut the ends off so that it will fit." 

Ivan Pavlov was a Russian psychiatrist that famously explored stimulus and response.  He would ring a bell when he fed his dog.  After a while he could make the dog salivate while ringing the bell even if there was no food present.  

But we do the same thing.  As the leaves fall from the trees we get out the decorations because that is what we do.  We have always done __________ is a terrible reason to do it.  There needs to be a reason.  And that goes for change too.  Changing for no reason is no better than continuing on for no reason.  In some groups, changing is the tradition that they do, because they have always done that.

As Christians, our focus is on building relationships with God.  In each thing that we do, we need to ask ourselves if it helps do this.  Certain activities are traditions that are time honored and proven to help bring people closer.  These are true gems and need to be protected.  Other things were effective at one time, but haven't been in some time.  These need to be left behind so that more productive ministries can take their place.

Watch this clip from Pastor Chris.

We need to be deliberate in what we do.  We can spend out lives going through the same motions that we always have or we can examine each event and see if it still serves its intended purpose effectively.