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When you think of the word "ritual" what immediately comes to mind? Typically the word "ritual" in the religious world of today's age has a negative impact, especially when viewing the New Testament. Rituals, as most people see it, are weird acts of bloody sacrifice that only happened in the Old Testament and are not "relevant" to the New Testament or the death of Christ. Yet think about your daily schedule of activities, or, if you will, your rituals. Do you work out daily? What do you do when you first wake up? Do you wake up at the same time each day? What do you do daily? You see, everyone follows some sort of schedule or certain rituals everyday.
Here are two definitions of the word "ritual":
-a series of actions or type of behavior regularly and invariably followed by someone
-(of an action) arising from convention or habit
After coming to an understanding of what the word 'ritual' means to you personally, Christians often pose the question of the importance of rituals in the church. They ask questions like, "If God cares only about a persons heart, why would He care about rituals?" To answer these questions, one must go back to personal experience. Rituals are much like repetition. They are things that you do repeatedly in order to accomplish something. For example, a beginning musician has to repeatedly practice his or her's instrument in order to become a good musician. They have to establish the habit and dedication to practice. Eventually, through repetition and learning, the person will become a skilled musician because of their ritual of practicing.
In this way, humans are not just thinking creatures, we are influenced by our desires. Repetition and rituals, therefore, should be chosen carefully because our actions do affect our desires. For example, since man is naturally sinful, most Christians have a hard time finding the dedication to read their Bible and pray on a daily basis. Until reading the Scripture has become a daily habit, or ritual, their desires are not geared toward absorbing God's Word. Yet once the habit has been formed, the desire for repetition over takes us. That is the sole of rituals; repetition is familiar, repetition is comfortable. Once you decide in your mind that you will do something and actually do it, the desire to do that thing quickly follows because it is familiar to you.
Even in the marketing world, our minds are stimulated on repetition. If you are watching TV you will see many of the same commercials and advertisements begin shown over and over and over again. Eventually, these advertisements are grafted into you; they have some sort of affect on you and they make you think a certain way and desire certain things because they promote certain needs with their products. This is the basis of human nature.
So why is it that we do what we do? We need a new set of rituals - rituals that are focused on God. Once these habits are formed, we will have a new set of desires, a set of desires that patterns after God's Word. In this way, rituals are character forming realities that end in desire.
You see, the idea that the "fresh" and the "new" is always better than the old is not necessarily true. Even in churches that follow the pattern of the world in their "newness" they are really just grabbing for something familiar to you; the world. The fast-passed schedules and the emphasis on the individual is a ritual that our world is calling for us accept as "normal." Yet our rituals, in the church and the home, should be set on God's word. Rituals, like it or not, are what form us, drive our desires, our actions, and ultimately our lives. Rituals, traditions, and habits pave our hearts and shape us into vessels of either good or evil. The choice is yours: will you choose to act on your self-centered desires or shape your life by God-centered habits?
~Lillian Kate
