Ground Hogs Day

"Ground Hogs Day" crossposted from "The Online Chaplain"

Groundhogs Day starring Bill Murry mirrors the life of a deployed soldier pretty well. In the movie, the same day, Groundhogs Day, keeps repeating itself over and over again. Bill Murry is caught in an endless cycle of repetition as one day turns into the next. Welcome to the life of a soldier.

A Vietnam veteran, a friend of mine, said that war was ninety-eight percent boredom and two percent terror. I don’t know what the percentages are here in Iraq, but I understand what he was saying. It’s the same routes, the same duty, and the same people over and over again. In the states, there is at least a weekend to break up the monotony, here one day just follows the next. It’s repetition. It’s, well, Groundhogs Day.

I am betting this is what the people of Israel felt like in desert too. Under Moses leadership God led about three million slaves out of Egypt into the wilderness. They were deployed in that wilderness for forty years. Forty years of the same meals. Forty years of the same living quarters. Forty years of the same routine, day in and day out. Same people, same problems, same whining. Same everything! Call it Groundhogs Day.

Same old job have you down this week? Did you think your life was going to be a Camero and it ended up being a Ford Escort Station Wagon? Did your Hilton hope turn into a Motel 6 I’m just getting by daily grind. If it did you are in good company, “in the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron.” (Ex 16:2-3) God’s people felt the same way when they were in the desert, and lets face it deserts come in many shapes and sizes. Emotional, relational, spiritual deserts can over take us even during the best of times. Are you in one now?

If so, its important to understand the pattern of these desert times. They are all the same. Jesus went into the desert for forty days of fasting and came out wielding the power of heaven to do God’s work. Paul went into the desert for three years and came out with a voice that beatings, ship-wrecks, lashings, stoning and persecution could not silence. The desert forges us into people we could never become except through fire. It is how they work.

Grumble through the monotony if you must. The tedium of the desert is not pleasant. The tedium of being at war is not enjoyable. Hey, its Groundhogs Day, again. But, hold out the hope God is doing a great thing in your life. He turned three million slaves into a conquering army in just forty years. What is he turning you into?