(Note: We will continue our theme of “Wisdom from Proverbs” for one more week in order to work our way through all 31 Proverbs. We will then move on to a new theme for the rest of July)
Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Wisdom from Proverbs”
Our Bible verse for today: “As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his foolishness.” Proverbs 26:11 (HCSB)
Our thought for today: “We must learn from past mistakes.”
You’ve probably heard the old saying “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” That saying reflects a basic truth about human nature in that we have a strong tendency to keep returning to patterns of past behavior, even if we know that behavior is wrong and unhelpful.
The primary reason the Vietnam War ended as a failed war for the United States is because our leaders attempted to prosecute the war with a minimum of force. Instead of calling it and treating it as a “war”, they called it “a limited police action” and then they tried to nickel and dime our involvement. But all they ended up doing was dragging the conflict out for years. Eventually we gave-up and walked away the loser.
As a result of the Vietnam debacle the USA adopted a policy of “overwhelming force” for all future military engagements. The idea is that we will not commit our armed forces to any military engagement unless we’re prepared to go in with overwhelming force that is guaranteed to quickly annihilate the enemy, and then to maintain that force for as long as necessary to keep the enemy subdued. No more “limited police actions” for us.
It’s a great concept, and it would probably work well if we would use it. Unfortunately all of our military engagements since Vietnam have also been of the limited engagement kind, and we’ve achieved pretty much the same results. Either we haven’t gone in with the overwhelming force needed to quickly defeat the enemy, or we haven’t maintained it long enough to truly keep the enemy subdued. Therefore we have the messes in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and Syria. Clearly we have not learned from history and therefore we are repeating it.
What’s true of those military actions is also true of life in general. We have to learn from our past mistakes, and we have to be very intentional about not making those mistakes again, or our human nature will lead us to simply repeat them.
If you have a long history of being overweight and out of shape but now you want to lose weight and become physically fit, you will have to be very intentional about changing the habits and behaviors of your past life. It will require a completely new approach to eating and exercising and you will have to stick with it – or you will end up reverting back to your old habits and you will get the same results.
If you struggle with drug or alcohol addiction but now you want to be free of it, you will need to change everything in your life that is in anyway connected to your substance abuse. The places you went to and the people you associated with will have to change. No more going to bars and hanging out with drinkers. If you attempt to maintain any of the old habits you will quickly revert back to the old behaviors.
Have you ever seen a dog return to its own vomit and eat it? It’s pretty disgusting. You can’t help but wonder why they do it. Well likewise with our old destructive patterns of living. Why do we keep going back to them? It makes no sense. If you keep doing what you’ve always done, you will keep getting what you’ve always gotten. And that of course, was Solomon’s point.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 