Cycling

No one remembers what has happened in the past, and no one in days to come will remember what happens between now and then. (Ecclesiastes 1:11) No, this isn’t a post about riding bikes, nor is it about Lance Armstrong. This is about the cycles of our life histories that seem to always come back, over and over. Here’s what I mean: you know that mistake you keep making, and this mistake, you made, you did last year, and last month, and last week, and yesterday. It might be spending too much on eating out, being mean, or even being too nice. Whatever it is, you keep doing it. You tell yourself, “never again.” Then you forget and in the spur of the moment, do it again. It’s a ruthless cycle that always comes back. Societally, we have horrible cycles of genocide, poverty, bigotry, etc; and despite resolutions, executive orders and policies, society just keeps the cycles going. I’m going to be honest here, our “cycles” carry consequences far greater than I can write about and much more internalize than you ever wanted. Yet, we do nothing to end these cycles– in ourselves and in our world. The one cycle that was broken through all of this was the cycle of death. You may spend most days not thinking or remembering about how sin and death were broken by our savior, Jesus; but you and I both know, nothing was ever the same because of it. We may not be able to fix ourselves enough to break the cycles of bad habits, but luckily for us, God did all the work and put us in a place where the cycle was already broken. I bet, if we would just remember that Jesus broke the worst cycle in our lives, that all these other “unbreakable” cycles in us will come apart and stop happening as well. Don’t believe me? Just give it a shot. I challenge you to remember Jesus’ death on a cross and resurrection from the dead every single day for the rest of the month and see what other bad cycle fell out of your life.