I hope you've learned your lesson!

“I hope you’ve learned your lesson!”  I guess that most parents have spoken those or similar words to their offspring, usually when the child concerned failed to take heed of a warning their parents had given, and suffered the consequences.  I can vaguely remember hearing those words from my parents, and it’s quite likely that I said something similar to my children when they were young.  Perhaps it’s not the most helpful of comments, but the underlying desire is that the one who has made a mistake will use it as a learning experience; it is quite natural for parents to want that for their children.  My problem is that right now I can hear (in my mind) one of my daughters saying the same thing to me!  Let me explain…

During the church service which I led yesterday morning I used several short passages from the book of Psalms to help us think about why followers of Jesus should regularly meet together.  A passage from Psalm 119 included these words:

‘I delight in following your commands more than in having great wealth.  I study your instructions; I examine your teachings.  I take pleasure in your laws; your commands I will not forget.’ (v14-16)

One of the things Christians do when they gather together is to learn the ways of God, particularly as we find them in the life and ministry of Jesus.  We acknowledge that God is our Creator and it makes sense to do as he says, understanding that despite what we may sometimes think, ultimately God knows best!  Many of the problems in our world and in society today have arisen because human beings have ignored the ways of God and have decided to go their own way.

At the end of the service I was moving a piano stool a short distance; when I bent to put it down I felt a sharp pain in my back.  I have been suffering ever since, especially when I awoke this morning after a night’s sleep.  My back had become stiff and very painful.  It must have taken me about 15 minutes to manoeuvre my body out of bed!  My daughter Steph is a nurse, and as I have been hobbling around the house I have been thinking of words which Steph has said to me on more than one occasion, “bend your knees, not your back”.  Now I can almost hear her saying, “I hope you’ve learned your lesson!”  Having experienced such discomfort over the last 24 hours, I sincerely hope that I HAVE learned my lesson!

It got me to considering what God thinks when he sees us human beings making the same mistakes over and over again.  Why is it that we seem so slow to learn the lessons of life and of history?  Why are we so slow to accept that God knows best?  Thank God that he is so gracious and forgiving with us!