• • FMIN Event Reports
• • Partner Mission Reports
• • Partner Outreach Reports
• • What In The World Is Happening?
• • Healthy Living
• • Look What The Lord Has Done/Heart to Heart
• • Workplace Leaders Network
• • Download Newsletter

Lessons Learned

We've heard it often: History repeats itself. But, what lessons are learned in this repetition of events, wars, human interaction and life itself?

Remember the movie, Groundhog Day , in which the main character woke up each morning to the same day? That fictional story is an extreme case of repetitive events within a 24 hour period. In reality, our human nature tends to produce the same results over and over, sometimes within a lifetime or over generations.

King Solomon recognized this phenomenon in his famous quote: "There is no new thing under the sun" In Ecclesiastes 1:9 (KJV) he writes: 'The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun."

What is God's perspective on history?
Author, Eugene Peterson, in Reversed Thunder noted:

History tumbles out a mass of data -- wars, famines, murders, and accidents -- along with sunrise and still waters, lilies of the field and green pastures. God's people have been convinced that it is possible in prayer and praise, in listening and believing, to discern meaning in this apparent chaos and therefore to read good news in the daily life of history. The means by which this is done is through the proclamation of Jesus Christ, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

We do not need Christ to tell us that the world is full of trouble. But we do need his explanation of history if its troubles are not to be meaningless. In his life, death, and resurrection history comes to focus.

Paying attention to Biblical history, world history, business history or family history can bring an abundance of lessons learned. Living out those lessons in the power of Jesus Christ is the catalyst to writing our own God-given pages in history.

Does life seem out of focus? Let God interpret the history around you and be the author of your story!

Ellene Meece lives in Meeker, Colorado and works with her husband in their natural resource company while running her own online store, Grandma's Treasures Online.

replies