When it came his time to die, Sisyphus begged his wife to throw him in the square after his death... which she did. When he came to the river Styx, he complained to Persephone that his wife had not buried him corrected. She allowed him to go back to Corinth and chastise his wife, however, he refused to return to the underworld and had to be dragged back by Hermes... because of this trickery, Zeus punished him by making him push a boulder up a hill for all eternity.
Albert Einstein defines insanity as:
doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
How many times have we struggled and struggled to make everything go according to out plans, only to have them topple around us... We're like Sisyphus and the boulder... struggling to push it to the top of the hill, only to have it crash back down to the bottom.
It's like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole... you can push and try to force that peg through the hole, or you can find the correct hole that the peg fits into. Instead of rushing ahead, sometimes we need to be patient and bide our time... God knows what he's doing. If we try and run ahead, we may miss some amazing blessing and instead end up hurt and discouraged. But if we wait on God, follow after his plan for our lives and are patient... we will find that his blessings surround us and are far too numerous to count.
Instead of rushing into a position for a raise, ask God for clarity... I know that is what I should have done. I rushed into a position and not even three months later found myself on the job hunt again. It wasn't that I was horrible at the job, it was simply not the job for me. My personality can only abide silly people and their nonsense for so long... and, believe me, my patience was being tested every day that I went to work. But I found myself, like Sisyphus... pushing a boulder up a hill and fighting a losing battle. I felt like I was stuck in a time loop... my attitude was getting worse, bad habits were forming and I was out of touch with God.
Saturday, I found that I was able to breathe. My stomach wasn't in knots anymore... I quickly returned to my writing, reading the Bible and enjoying my quiet time in the morning instead of grudging taking five minutes to quickly read a verse and then go to bed. Prayer was slowly returning and I felt like I was changing back into who I wanted to be.
If you've ever seen the movie Groundhog Day, this might help... Bill Murray plays Phil, a egotistical meteorologist that gets stuck in a time loop on Groundhog Day. After he repeats February 2nd, several times, he finally talks with someone he's met. She suggests that he reevaluate his life... make some changes, and become a better person... when he starts to really want to change, the cycle is broken.
When I first saw this movie, I hated it... it annoyed me... probably because I didn't get the underlying message of the movie... after doing so reevaluation of my own life, I get it... even though you aren't stuck in a time loop, you can get stuck in a routine of ego, bad attitude and self centered-ness that can lead to falling into the same pattern over and over and over.
Romans 12:12 tells us to be joyful in hope, patient in affliction and faithful in prayer.... when you feel like you're stuck, don't just stick it out, pray... really seek God's will for your life... you might be surprised what find.
Photo credit: "Fireworks" by: bayasaa, used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs license
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