You know how they say history is doomed to repeat itself? They’re right, and I don’t mean just about world history. Humanity is simultaneously hitting the self-destruct button and the undo button. It’s not just in politics. It’s in our everyday lives. And every time we swear it will be different. We swear we won’t make the same mistake. But we do.

For example, I try to fix things the ‘easier’ way, only to royally screw up. Then I’m forced to fix it the right way, taking more time. Five seconds later, I’m trying to use the ‘easy’ way again. I know it’s more likely to make the problem worse, yet I continue to do it.

Spiritually, we make the same mistakes that were made in Eden. We believe the whatever-it-is we’re not supposed to do won’t hurt us, much to the Betrayer’s delight. A little while later, like a lactose-intolerant child who decides to disobey their parents’ rules and eats an entire gallon of ice cream, we realize we screwed up big time. Like the guilty child, we try to hide what we did. The rules weren’t put in place to hurt us but to protect us, though we don’t realize this until after we mess up. When asked about it, we try to bluff our way through the questions. Or blame others for our actions. And then comes the repentance. We’re sorry for our failure, at least until the next shiny thing we’re not to touch comes along. Despite us being nothing but a bunch of traitors, the King loves us anyway.

Why do we do these things? Because we think maybe it will work out differently this time. Maybe God won’t call us out on it. Maybe He won’t notice. After all, there are eight billion people on Earth. He’s omniscent, AKA all-knowing. He knows how many hairs are on your head. You honestly think He won’t notice you running to your doom? We keep picking the same fruit, thinking it won’t be bitter on our tongues each time we pick it.

They history is doomed to repeat. I say the same, except for this. If we fight hard enough, we don’t have to keep playing it again. If we resist the Betrayer when he comes knocking with poison fruit, we can break the cycle. What it comes down to is us and how willing we are to stop hitting the repeat button. Once we start falling, it isn’t always easy to stop. But, once we stop falling, we can rise and take our places in the Great Romance with the God Who sacrificed His Son to save us.