King Solomon wisely said, “there is nothing new under the sun..” and boy was he right!

I spoke in the main service at our church today. In preparation for teaching I tried desperately to come up with new thoughts and ideas but I kept coming back to the realization that my “original” thoughts weren’t all that “original”. They were just recycled thoughts or ideas from someone else that I had either read or heard.

I was frustrated until I really thought about it. Is there a reason all ideas, both good and bad, aren’t really original? Why do we have such a hard time coming up with original ideas or why do old ideas and trends seem to resurface and have a resurgence? I could speculate all day long as to why this happens from a sociological perspective but more important I think I realized why this is the case from a spiritual perspective…we as people don’t learn the first time.

I believe we are destined to a kind of spiritual “Ground Hog Day” where we are to learn something and the lesson, will be repeated until we learn it. The nation of Israel did laps in the desert for 40 years because they would not learn a few simple lessons!

George Santayana the philosopher said: “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it” (I had to look this up on Google, I am not that smart )

My realization was this…God recycles life and all it’s ideas because the people before didn’t learn the lesson, we can’t seem to get it and those that will come after us will fail as well!

But all is not lost!!!!!

God takes us through these recycled lessons as He has done for thousands of years with man. But the amazing thing is, He is as patient with us as He was with Adam and Eve!

We serve a patient, steady, kind, faithful, loving creator that keeps dropping the recycled lessons and ideas of life He has used so many times before because He believes in us.

So I guess the lack of “original” thought isn’t so bad when I consider my recycled thought started with Him….