“The foolishness of man twists his way, and his heart frets against the LORD.” Proverbs 19:3
Have you heard the definition of insanity? It’s been a catchy saying the past few years. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. This simple truth is a good springboard for change in business, and it also illustrates an excellent point about the way we human beings make choices. To wit, we too seldom take the long view and consider the consequences. I’ll go a step further and say human blindness too often prevents us making the connection between the choice and the consequence. Especially when a healthy span of time separates the two.
The Bible has a lot to say about bringing things to our remembrance. If I take the Lord’s hint in Scripture, I must admit He seems to think people have a propensity for forgetting. That’s one reason we do all those little things Christians do, like writing in the margins of our Bibles, taking notes on steno pads, and writing our thoughts in journals. These things help us remember, and they help us make connections between action and reaction. That is, if we ever actually go back and read them.
But each of us has a livelier reminder of the good and bad choices we’ve made in our past: Our present. If we can bear to wave our lives in front of the unerring Geiger counter of the Word, we can discover post-haste just how much blessing is present. And how much curse. I have a friend who preaches a great message titled “No More Curse”. The point is Jesus became a curse for us, and the presence in our lives of any of the bad stuff listed in Deuteronomy 28 is unacceptable. Not that we are unacceptable to God if we’re floundering, but that He wants us to know these things can be unacceptable to us. They aren’t part of “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven”, where there is no curse. (Rev. 22:3)
We can never go back and change the past, but the really wonderful thing about the Lord is that He enjoys separating us from our mistakes “as far as the east is from the west”. He is a Redeemer. He is a Restorer. He is a Repairer. And a Regenerator. His mercies are new every morning! As the cliché goes, Today is the first day of the rest of your life. A fresh start. We can become someone we’ve never been before. I know it’s possible because I’ve experienced it myself.
Sometimes it’s good to pause and do a little self-evaluation. And if you find you’ve been beating yourself on the head with a hammer, STOP! It feels good when you do.