Groundhog Day Faith

 

Taken from  Confessions Of A Bad Christian   which is located    HERE.

As a part of my new “green” blog initiative I am recycling these Groundhog day musings)

They woke up Punxsutawney Phil Tuesday morning long enough for  the prognosticating rodent to let us know whether six more weeks of  winter must be endured. According to Phil you should plan on bundling up  for the next month and a half.

Phil looks about as happy as I do when when I am disturbed in the  morning. Seventeen years ago a funny and underappreciated  movie came on  the scene. Groundhog Day told  the story of a self-absorbed news reporter (redundancy alert?) that  finds himself stuck in an endless repeat of the same day. Bill Murray is  perfect in the role of reporter Phil Connors. Since I live in the odd  world of broadcast television I can relate to the cynical personality of  Murray’s character. Reporter Phil is less than thrilled that he has  been assigned to cover Punxsutawney Phil’s annual peek outside to  predict winter’s duration. He feels he is “above” such an inane  assignment. Connor’s looks into the camera and cynically reports:

“This is one time where television really fails to capture the true excitement of a large squirrel predicting the weather.”

My day and/or night job is television sports directing. I have  directed some events that offer that kind of challenge. But what got me  thinking about that movie again was the plotline where Phil Connors  realizes he is doomed to live the same day over and over and over. The  plot is summed up in this article in Wikipedia. For  Connors, Groundhog Day begins each morning at 6:00 A.M., with his  waking up to the same song, Sonny & Cher’s “I Got You Babe”, on his  alarm clock radio, but with his (and only his) memories of the  “previous” day intact, trapped in a seemingly endless “time loop” to  repeat the same day in the same small town.

Connor has this exchange in the film.

 

Phil: What would you do if you were stuck in one place and every day was exactly the same, and nothing that you did mattered? Ralph: That about sums it up for me.

And that brought to mind another famous Bill Murray quote…this time from Stripes.

And then depression set in.

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. Why is that?

Einstein was once quoted as saying that “insanity is doing the same  thing over and over and expecting different results.” I am not quite  willing to concede that I was insane. But the truth is that for years I  did approach my spiritual life the same way everyday while somehow  expecting different results.

I would make a mistake (that is politically correct for sin) and I  would convince myself that I would never do that again. I was grateful  that the consequences were not worse. I was determined to stay far, far  away from that sin. And then before I know it I had forgotten the lesson  and I would awaken each morning to my own version of Groundhog Day. The  Apostle Paul wrote about this very thing (not the giant rodent part…the  repeating behavior part) 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?

Nothing.

Wait! Don’t let depression set in. This is good news! You and I can’t  do it. I am incapable in my own efficacy (5 Reader’s Digest points) 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 one. I don’t have to clean up the sin to please God. He  loves me already because of Jesus. Step Two. 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 not trusting Him with 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.

The moral of the movie Groundhog Day was that Phil Connor needed to  learn that he was self-absorbed and dependent on his selfish efforts to  get ahead. The moral of the spiritual groundhog day is to learn that we  cannot depend on our self efforts to live a joyful and free Christian  life. I come to Jesus by grace and total dependence. I live for Jesus by  grace and total dependence. While the other groundhog is busy  predicting weather I would suggest you try this for the next six weeks.  When the alarm jars you awake remember this truth. Instead of the Sonny  and Cher song you can sing “I Got You Lord”. The two of you can end  this “Groundhog Day” of frustration. To paraphrase our hero Phil from  above….

This is one time where a blog really fails to capture the true  excitement of a large doofus trying to explain his joy and freedom of  learning how to live in grace. So try it for yourself. If you begin to  lean on grace perhaps you can also paraphrase the line from Stripes with  this one.

And then joy and freedom set in. That is my prayer for you today. I can’t help you with the weather.

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