A Thought For The Week Of January 29, 2018

"... I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do - this I keep on doing." (Romans 7:19) I'm writing this reflection on Groundhog Day, as I lament the fact that our local groundhogs seem to have decided that we have six more weeks of winter to come - and in the light of that prediction I am reminding myself that these meterologically inclined rodents are still God's creatures, and are deserving of respect. But the very fact that this is Groundhog Day reminds me of the wonderful movie of the same name, in which Bill Murray played a weatherman who found himself endlessly repeating the same day of his life (Groundhog Day) over and over again, with no obvious means of escape, no matter how desperately he tried to break the cycle. Which then made me think of Paul's words, "the evil I do not want to do - this I keep on doing." It is so easy to become trapped in patterns that - even if not evil - are at least not helpful or positive. We all know of people who are addicted to various things - and these are the worst manifestations of these kinds of patterns. But all of us can get trapped. It might not be drugs or alcohol or gambling or any of the other obvious "vices" that we hear about so often - but destructive and harmful patterns of behaviour are things we can all fall into; a series of bad choices in which one leads to another and it just keeps going on and on is something familiar to a lot of people. Jesus told us that we should be "perfect, as [our] heavenly Father is perfect," but that seems a dream; something beyond our reach. Self-help experts will tell us that it's as simple as replacing our bad patterns with good ones, but that isn't easy. Romans 7:19 tells us that Paul couldn't do that. We may not recognize our bad patterns as bad - maybe we've convinced ourselves that they're good, or at least not harmful, and those negative cycles (up to and including addictions) are things we get into because they meet some need deep within us. They're pleasant. They seem to help us. If that weren't the case, we'd give them up easily. So, if even Paul could lament the pattern of "evil" behaviour that had him ensnared and find no escape from it - is there hope? I suppose the hope is found in the fact that we can at least recognize the pattern. Perhaps the hope is that we realize the pattern isn't positive - that it's something we need to be released from. And, recognizing those things, maybe the pattern can even ultimately push us closer to God, as we learn that we have to depend on God for our ultimate freedom from these patterns that hold us ensnared. Eventually, Bill Murray's character found love on one of the countless Groundhog Days he experienced, - and he finally awakened on February 3, to face a bright future. Hopefully, in the midst of our negative patterns - we find the love of God, and we awaken into a new day, and a new life.