I Got You, Lord

No pun intended, but I watched Groundhog Day again this month. In the movie, Bill Murray’s character is perfectly obnoxious until he finally gets his life right by living the same day over and over, but learning from each rerun. Paying closer attention to his actions and reactions was tough for him and it is often the same with me. My heart might benefit if God reconstructed my learning curve in a similar format:  every time I behave in a manner unworthy of my faith, I will wake up tomorrow and discover that it is today – again and again. All my tomorrows will be the same until I recognize each error of my ways and make things right. In other words, I might never make it past an existence of only a handful of tomorrows. On the positive side, I might have truthfully remained forever in my twenties.

Would it help if Sonny and Cher busted out “I Got You, Babe”, as in the movie, to consistently awaken us to our new selves in Christ? Anything is possible. Just imagine the plethora of opportunities to be Christ-like that are offered us during the course of one day, and how many of those chances we either ignore or truly miss. That’s not even counting our bad choices of which we are fully cognizant. We are blessed that we don’t have to correct our mistakes before moving on to the next day. The option is left with us. You may be like me – clearly way too busy to add one more responsibility to any day. Besides, I have nurtured my bad habits and I am so comfortable with them.

I get fed on Sundays and I try to apply what I read and hear from sermons and study groups. I honestly mean well. It’s just that I forget. Would I make a more concerted effort to be like Him if I had something tangible to remind me of who I am? Now we’re talking. A hot pink rubber bracelet imprinted with WWJD might help – especially if I snap myself with it every time I mess up. I could benefit from a shiny gold cross dangling from a necklace every time I happen to look in the mirror. Maybe I would catch a quick reminder when changing lanes on the freeway if I displayed a simple fish profile decal on the rear window of my car. I could also suspend a tiny angel from that rearview mirror. My very last resort would be to have a scripture deftly tattooed around my forearm, just above my watch.

Okay. I admit my premise is fantasy. Reality is much simpler than this early nineties movie, and outward symbols generally serve to declare our faith in Christ to others, not to remind us of our convictions. But don’t we have a genuine obligation to live up to the foundation of that relationship in all that we do from dawn to dusk? There are no rational guarantees that we will have the identical circumstances presenting infinite chances to demonstrate that we truly get it; therefore, our reality is to do what is right starting today and in all of our tomorrows. A relevant line from an even more popular movie comes to mind:  “Do or do not; there is no try.” ~ Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back

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