Groundhog Day Again?

 “The eight laws of learning are explanation, demonstration, imitation, 

repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition.” John Wooden

 “That's right, woodchuck-chuckers — it’s…Groundhog Day!” Do you remember that line from the Bill Murray movie, Groundhog Day? Every February 2^nd is Groundhog Day, the day when the superstitious look to a small mammal to determine how soon spring will arrive.

  The 1993 movie focused on a weatherman, Phil Connors, who was given the same assignment every year. For the fourth year in a row, he was sent to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania to cover the annual Groundhog Day events. Begrudgingly, he went and gave his report. However, upon awakening the next day, he found himself in a time loop. Once again it was Groundhog Day. Once again, he experienced the events as they had already occurred one day prior. The same thing happened the next day, the next day, the next day, and so on. It’s a silly (sometimes funny) movie.

  Been there! Done that! Variety is the spice of life and gives it meaning. That’s the message of our culture but it feeds our need to constantly seek new foods, clothing styles, appliances, technological toys, and other objects of our desires. We’re programmed to look down upon the drudgery of repetition or routine. Repetition is the stuff of dullards, not the cool or hip.  

  Routines are caricatured as boring, yet the writer of Ecclesiastes famously reminds us, “What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun” (1:9).

  Did you know that God has made all of creation to exist and flourish in a repetitive pattern (Genesis 1–2)? The heavens declare His glory, the sun runs its course with joy (Psalm 19:1–6), the rivers clap their hands, and mountains sing His praises (Psalm 98:8). Creation glorifies God through its constancy—including humans, God’s most treasured creatures. Our bodies require daily food and rest. We’re designed to find purpose in knowing and glorifying God again and again.

  There’s deep joy, even fulfillment in the repetitious. Too many overlook the beauty of the ordinary and repeated. Attempting to avoid a life with repetition is foolish and futile. It’s a fundamental reality of being human. As someone said, “we are creatures of again; we are made for again.”

  In his book, Orthodoxy, G. K. Chesterton chastises adults for a disconnected view of reality: “Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, ‘Do it again’; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, ‘Do it again’ to the sun; and every evening, ‘Do it again’ to the moon. It may not be an automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.”

  Too often we miss the joy of the repeated in God’s world. When was the last time that you were grateful for these consistent recurrences?

  The repetitions of nature. Recently, I’ve been reading Exodus in my devotions. The 9^th plague that God inflicted on Egypt to convince Pharoah to set Israel free was darkness. It was pitch black for three days.

  Even on overcast days, we enjoy the consistency of the rising sun, giving us some measure of daylight. Winter may seem long, yet we know spring is coming. Snow and cold are always followed by warmth, the blooming and regreening of our world. Repetition. It’s happened every year since the beginning and will continue to happen.

  The repetition of relationships. No one is shocked when parents love their children. We’re shocked when they don’t. That repetition of relational love goes back to Creation when Adam looked into Eve’s eyes and then that first couple looked into the eyes of their firstborn son. We expect men and women to fall in love and commit to each other. Valentine’s Day is a few weeks off. 30,000 employees with profits of some $4 billion annually at Hallmark Cards are thankful they do. No one is surprised by love and romance. It’s part of our design. It always has been and always will be. The continuation of relationships is designed to be expected and anticipated. It’s a source of repeated joy and fulfillment.

  The repetition of God’s mercy. Lamentations 3:22-23 says, “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning…” What’s amazing about that verse is that the prophet Jeremiah penned those words after the nation of Israel’s continual rebellion against God. They’d now been captured by the Babylonians and the city of Jerusalem was left a smoking ruin. Jeremiah knew that God wasn’t done. He would forgive them and return them to the Promised Land.

  You and I experience the same mercy. As believers, as those who know better, we find that we commit the same sin over and over again. We’re good at the repetition of sin; God is great at the repetition of mercy. He forgives us again and again…for the same sin. That doesn’t mean that sinning isn’t serious or it’s like free credit. God’s mercy means that a loving God knows the frailty of our humanity and paid all of our sin debt on His Son’s cross.

  The repetition of God’s faithfulness. Jeremiah ends his praise in Lamentations with “great is Your faithfulness.” What does that mean? It simply means that if you’re a Christian, you’ve been adopted by a Father who will never ever change His mind in regard to you. He will never write you off, leave you or forsake you. If you’re a part of God’s family, you have a Friend who sticks closer than a brother. You can’t talk about the one true God without coming to this truth: Great is the faithfulness of our God!

  There is an ecstasy of having our hearts set ablaze with the hope of the gospel—again and again. It’s a repetition that we’re impoverished without. 

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