Circles

I've come to believe that the world is round. I know...that's already been figured out. I don't mean literally round, although it is. What I mean is that I believe that the world exists in circles. Everything is circular. You know what I mean. What goes around comes around. History repeats itself. In the end you end up marrying someone just like your mother, if you're a guy of course. All of those sayings and mystical beliefs about human nature and the society in which we live. But the longer I do what I do, the more I believe that these have truth to them. They have truth because they've been observed. Science used to be that way, truth through observation. Today it's truth by what makes sense, or what feels good, or what offends the least amount of people. But in my opinion, what I learned back when science was still somewhat reliable, truth is observable. And I've observed that life exits in circles, so it must be truth. Anyway.... what I mean is this. History does repeat itself. Not just in society but in human existence itself. Be honest, how many times have you repeated the same dumb mistake. How many times have you exhibited the same damaging character flaw. How many times have you heard just another variation of the same old excuse. In my observation late people run late. Lazy people are generally lazy. Arrogant people are stuck in arrogance. Addicted people are trapped in addiction. Dependent people depend. And the list goes on. Unless.....something happens to break the circle. It is not hopeless. Anyway people do exist in good circles also. Generous people are generous. Considerate people are considerate, and so on. But the damaging circles need to be broken. Many of us spend our lives trying to break the circle (or cycle) ourselves. We use many creative means. Some of us are into self-help. Soame are into therapy. Some are into sheer will power. Some try to buy their way out. Sometimes society tries to break it for us. We try with prison time. We may try with medication. There are many programs to enlist to break the circle. Some of them do work. Don't get me wrong. There is value in many of these and I don't mean to sound critical...imagine that. However, I can tell you through observation (science?) that circles don't stay broken without a sustaining force. And the sustaining force can never be ourselves. It can never be a human relationship. Because we ourselves and our relationships are flawed and limited by our very nature. It takes something that is not flawed, something that is not limited. It takes a reliance on Jesus. It takes faith in something beyond ourselves, something we were all created for yet don't automatically have. It takes faith. Now it's true that Jesus works well in combination with some of the other methods described. Or may I be so bold as to suggest that He can work trough those other methods described. One thing I do know. Without Him, you're destined to travel in circles. I've seen it. Call it science?

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