THE POWER OF REPETITION: There are those little things that stay with us long after the main event is gone and forgotten: A word (in season) spoken by a stranger, that one person across the room that caught your eye. That one thing that stood to be noticed.

Such a seminal moment for me came almost 10 years ago today – at an annual men’s retreat that my church used to host.

As was custom, our first evening started with worship a couple of hours after arrival. Song One was projected. Song Two followed. Then Song One. Where was song three? (I almost verbalized my concern.) This must be a mistake, I told myself. But I sung along to these two common songs that I didn’t need projected lyrics to remember; I knew them by heart.

That was Day One. In the morning, after the communal devotion, it was back to yesterday’s song one and song two, and then back at one. And two. What!

When we got our first coffee break, I walked straight to the worship leader to voice my concern. He coyly pointed me in the direction of the pastor. Both men smiled, and chuckled to themselves and came short of saying: We just got started, dude; you will get used to this.

And so continued two more days of song one and song two – repeated one after the other. By the third day, every syllable in those two songs was leaving my tongue with new meaning. Every line seemed to jump off the projector at me. Somewhere along that trajectory, I found myself on my knees. And you guessed right, so were all the other men.

(Those three days changed my life).

The power of repetition. The best-selling book of all time (scratch that). The best-selling book of the year, every year (the bible, of course), is an exercise in repetition. So is the catholic liturgy. And countless others.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not any thing made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it..”

These words of John (the disciple that Jesus dearly loved) were my meditation focus this week. They also brought back a curious high school memory: Mr Allen, my English literature teacher who always walked by the school chapel in his short khakis, every bit unbothered by what goes on in there. He had us memorize and do a literary analysis of this scripture portion one dreary Monday morning. Then, like now, I had a disdain for every thing religion but was intrigued by the word play and clever repetition in John’s poetry. But this week, it was not an academic exercise. It was spiritual. And that comes with power.

What is it you are feeding your mind, and keep telling yourself – again and again? What is on repeat mode in your life?

(Be mindful. You see, whatever you plant in your subconscious mind and nourish with repetition, will become your reality.)