You know that feeling where you keep going through the same kind of situation over and over and you don’t know why?  It’s that odd sense of déjà-vu-all-over-again that comes with differing frequencies of regularity.  That’s what I call Brick Wall Therapy – when you don’t learn a lesson, God keeps bringing it back around in your life.  You feel like you are beating your head against a brick wall until you finally learn the lesson that God has placed in front of you.

In my experience, the first time or two the lesson comes up, it presents itself more as an interesting experience that I have a faint inkling that maybe I’m supposed to get something out of.  If I’m smart enough to recognize it at that time and make what may seem like a very minor change in my life, the lesson is not likely to present itself again.  If I don’t see the lesson early, or I choose not to make the changes I feel prompted to make, that is when the situation comes around again and again with increasing frequency and larger consequences.  I go from catching my toe on a rock, to having to step over a boulder, to running head first into a wall.

Some of these lessons have taken me years or decades to learn.  Sometimes, once I think I’ve learned the lesson, a circumstance will arise again to test me to see if I REALLY learned the lesson, or if I just THINK I did.  Examples of some of these lessons include extending forgiveness to someone who may hurt me deeply over and over (God gave me a beautiful picture of forgiveness a few years ago that I’ll share soon), understanding that unconditional love really has to not have any strings attached, or that holding a grudge is neither helpful nor healthful (I am a recovering expert grudge-holder-on-er).

I wonder sometimes if the Israelites got tired of camping at the same camp site or passing the same outcropping of rocks as they wandered in circles in the desert for 40 years (although the idea of your favorite dress and sandals not wearing out is pretty amazing).  Proverbs 16:9 states “In their hearts humans plan their course, but the LORD establishes their steps” (NIV) and Proverbs 19:21 says “Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails” (NIV). I find it comforting, if not somewhat frustrating at times, that even if I don’t get it right the first time, God will continue to guide my steps to accomplish his plan.  There are times that I wonder why He wants me to learn a certain lesson, but I have found that if I put the time and energy into learning the lesson instead of fighting against the process, I am generally happier and more at peace sooner.  And guess what?  After that lesson is learned, there is another one behind it and the process starts over.  I figure as long as God keeps teaching me lessons, I haven’t fulfilled my purpose here yet, and that is something to celebrate in the midst of the process.

What kind of lessons have you noticed keep coming around in your life?