Go Around AGAIN

A classic children’s book by Dr. Seuss, Go Dog, Go!, contains a line that is often unintentionally repeated in many lives: “Go around AGAIN! (The talking cartoon canines demand the ride-operator to spend them around the ferris wheel once again). It reminds me of people at amusement parks who, despite waiting in line for perhaps an hour or more under a blazing sun to board a favorite roller coaster, downplay the discomfort of it all-- in exchange for the fleeting thrill of the ride.

Repeating a thrill ride is one thing, but the at-times disheartening and fatiguing reruns on life’s journey---the “go-around-agains” which our Savior lovingly invokes because of our spiritual myopia--are hardly the disciplinary response we desire from Him, our mastery teacher, despite our desperate need of the same. If you doubt that this is a recurring issue for many, I summon to the stage Samson, King David, Joshua (Joshua 7:10), Gideon (with his lack of confidence and fleece-laying proclivities), and of course, those stiff-necked Israelites of old, who took forty years to reach Canaan, in lieu of the mere eleven days it should have taken! (No judgment here on my part).

We all have earned at one time or another and have earned the “spiritually slow-learner” label. Wondrous hope is found in the bold realization that our Alpha and Omega Lord declares His own to be more than conquerors through Him who loves us! Praise God for His longsuffering and various degrees of purposeful chastisement of us who know Him! That said, saints, time waits for no one, so let us get off that tired old spiritual rollercoaster and avoid as much as possible the “go-around-again” syndrome.

PRAYER: Dear Father, thank You for being so longsuffering and gracious toward us as to lovingly communicate Your perfect will to us, despite our stubborn reluctance at times to vacate our self-designed comfort-zones. Have Your way in us as we seek to obey Your clearly revealed will. In Christ’s name—amen.
By Sis. Denise Diggs