The Same Old Mistakes

[sharky67]

THE SAME OLD MISTAKES

HEBREWS 12:1

Steve May


A man hired a pilot to take him Caribou hunting in Canada. He asked the pilot to land in a remote place. The pilot said, "There aren't any Caribou in this area." The hunter said, "Yes there are. I was here last year." Sure enough, in a few hours the hunter returned, dragging two caribou.

The pilot said, "You can't load two caribou. The plane can't bear the weight." The hunter said, "Well, I did it last year. Same size plane, same size caribou." The pilot finally agreed, and they took off. The plane, however, couldn't carry the load, and crashed into the side of a mountain.

The pilot got angry at the hunter and said, "I can't believe I let you talk me into this. I knew this plane couldn't carry two caribou. Now we're stranded on this mountain and no one will ever find us." The hunter said, "Don't worry, the rescue team will find us in no time. We're just a few hundred feet from where we crashed last year."

The same mistakes. This is what I find most frustrating about myself—this tendency to repeat mistakes. If A doesn't work, why do we keep doing A? I'll never understand it. They say the sign of insanity is to keep doing the same thing expecting a different result. If that's it, most of us are insane; we get tripped up more often by old habits than by new temptations.

I wish the Bible offered a quick 3 step formula for breaking bad habits, but it doesn't. Here's the only "formula" it gives us: "Let us also lay aside every weight and the sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us." (Hebrews 12:1)

Lay it aside and keep running, the writer says-—especially the sins that "cling closely". Lay them aside. They'll probably be back to annoy us another day, to knock us down another time, but for now, put them aside and keep running the race.

Eventually, I think, persistence will pay off. Bad habits and character flaws can be overcome. Someday the sin will no longer cling closely, will no longer beset us. Till then, we've got to keep running the race.

[warrior]

Definition of insanity-doing the same things and expecting different results.We chuckle at the hunter,but are we so different?Are we willing to lay aside what causes us to stumble in the race?let us tie our shoes,stretch our legs and get running -until we finish the race!

[rapturebound]

I think Paul the Apostle said it best.
Romans 7:19
" For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do."
Habitual sin is a deadly sin made all the more harder because most were doing it, before we got saved, for years. Truly old habits die hard.