Escaping Your Groudhog Day...

Today is Grounhog Day and I am sure that sometime today I will sit down and pull out the DVD of one of my favorite movies, Groundhog Day and watch it with my family. This movie is about a cynical, self-absorbed, arrogant TV weatherman named Phil Connors who has to cover the Groundhog Day festival in Punxatawney, PA and ends up living the same day, Groundhog Day, over and over again. So what is the point of these ramblings? Is it to impress you with my cerebral movie tastes? The point is that too many followers of Jesus are stuck in a "Groundhog Day" life of their own. They wake up every day and feel trapped in a repeating pattern of frustrating behavior. And then, depression sets in. The Apostle Paul wrote about this very thing in his letter to the Romans. "I decide to do good, but I don't really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don't result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time." (Romans 7, The Message) Wow...can I relate to that. A bit later Paul writes…I've tried everything and nothing helps. I'm at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn't that the real question? That is the real question. And there is a real answer offered by Paul. The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different. So what can you do to get out of this sin spiral? You and I can’t do it. I am incapable in my own efficacy to escape my spiritual Groundhog Day. Only Jesus can enable me to escape this endless loop of frustration. Further advice from Paul follows in Chapter 8 of his amazing letter to the Romans. But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. Allow the truth of that verse to soak in. Want to get out of your Groundhog Day existence? Most readers of these humble ramblings realize they couldn’t deal with their sin separation from God on their own. We needed Jesus. So why do we think we can deal with our ongoing sin issues on our own? When the Father looks at me on my very worst day this is what He sees. Jesus. That is Step 1. I don’t have to clean up the sin to please God. He loves me already because of Jesus. Step 2. I am learning daily to recognize that the Spirit of God has taken up residence in my life. I am learning that I am the one who limits His power by restricting access and control to my thoughts and actions. I am learning that I don't need to wake up to the frustrating effects of repeated self-effort. I can wake up trusting God, trusting that Jesus has my sin covered and trusting that the Spirit of God will allow me to resolve that sin. Trusting God and what His Word says to be true allows me to escape the Groundhog Day syndrome. Instead I have a new day full of possibilities to thank God for His amazing grace.