I was reminded today of how how we tend to choose the familiar over the unfamiliar, even though the familiar is not always better.
Tonight our family went out to eat. And although there were plenty of food options, one of our children was very excited over some snack crackers that my wife keeps in her bag. Now, there’s nothing wrong with these little crackers, but they are definitely not on the same level as freshly baked pizza or fresh fruit. Yet, the crackers held an attraction that these other things didn’t at that point in time. Why? I think part of it was they were familiar. They had been the goto snack many times before, and now there was a desire for them. Not because they were better, but because they were familiar.
In life, we can get so used to the familiar, that we may not even realize that we’re settling for far less than we could be. It’s like the C.S. Lewis quote about the “ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.” Yes, familiar may be easier—or more convenient—but that doesn’t make it better.