Groundhog Day: We escape monotony of life by accepting all that God has given us
When I tell people that February brings with it my favorite non-religious holiday, many believe that I am a hopeless romantic who swoons for valentine’s day and all the things that come with it. While it is true, I am a hopeless romantic, I am not a fan of valentine’s day but rather the oft overlooked yet still pristine Groundhog Day.
I will admit my infinity for Groundhog Day has little to do with the groundhog himself but rather for the mid 90’s cult classic of the same name starring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell. The story of a man caught in a loop, stuck in time, forced to relive the same day over and over again.
Like most mid 90’s romantic comedies, Groundhog Day has something to teach us about life and about love, but today, it reminded me of something we can learn about God as well.
I think all of us at one point in our life or another has felt like every day is the same as the day before it, the feeling of being stuck in our own lives. It is a feeling in our lives that there has to be more to life than just what I am doing now.
The best thing about this feeling is I think the Bible is instructive to us about times like this. When I think about monotony in our everyday life I tend to think about the Israelites when they were wondering in the desert. They were stuck in this 40-year waiting period because of their own disbelief.
Numbers 14:23
Not one of them will ever see the land I promised on oath to their ancestors. No one who has treated me with contempt will ever see it.
Numbers 14: 33
Your children will be shepherds here for forty years, suffering for your unfaithfulness, until the last of your bodies lies in the wilderness.
The Israelites were forced to wait around in the desert, so close to everything they had been promised and yet subjected to never taste of the land they were promised. Their disbelief forced them to stay in a holding pattern and kept them from being a part of everything God was doing.
So, when we look at our own lives, what disbelief is keeping us here? What promises do we read about in the Bible and give up on instead of believing in? How many prayers go unfilled because they were never prayed?
Bill Murray’s character, Phil, only escapes the loop he is stuck in when he learns the lesson he was supposed to learn. For him that took years, for the Israelites it took 40, what will it take for us?
Will we reject the disbelief that has held us captive for years? Will we cast aside all the faithlessness that has left us with the ordinary? Will we embrace everything God promised us in the Bible? Will we fulfill our hearts longing for more in our lives?
When Jesus says, “I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father.” (John 14:12)
Those are not just words, but a promise of God’s goodness and power in our lives and should be the rallying cry we use as we escape the monotony of the day and charge forward into eternity.
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