Same Mistakes

“As a dog returns to its vomit,
so fools repeat their folly.”
-Proverbs 26:11

Two weeks ago, a climber in Japan was airlifted from Mount Fuji after climbing a steep trail, experiencing altitude sickness, and becoming unresponsive. I’m so glad the rescue team was able to get him out.

But the story isn’t over. Four days later, there had to be another rescue. Two rescues in one week is big news. Except—guess who the second guy they rescued was?

IT WAS THE SAME GUY.

He went back to get his phone. Because, you know… the whole life-threatening altitude sickness episode was definitely not going to happen again. Oh wait. Huh.
Who would have thought that when you don’t change anything, you get the same result as before?
Everyone, buddy. Everyone.

Part of me wants to just rail against our insane obsession with material things, and how this man risked his life to go back and grab a replaceable piece of metal. But that makes me sound grumpy.

I could rail against addictions to materials and technology. But I don't want to be grumpy. So instead, I’m thinking about how this situation speaks to our lives of faith.

We have a formation problem. We’re climbing up the same mountain over and over again, and we’re not learning anything each time. We’re not changing anything in order to live out God’s kingdom more faithfully.

Discipleship is the process of being formed in the way of Jesus. But often we simply expect that if we’re Christian long enough, we’ll eventually get different results—even when we don’t actually change any habits or mindsets. And we’re surprised when the same relational problems, fights, internal struggles, and despairs keep showing up over and over again. (This happens on a large scale too- like when Christians believe that giving their allegiance to worldly systems of power will help bring God's kingdom. It hasn't worked for thousands of years. And it's definitely not working now). 

Back to our lives. Now certainly, struggles are a part of being human. Anxieties creep up throughout our lives, struggles and temptations ebb and flow, and like the Apostle Paul said, there will be times when we do the very thing we don’t want to do. But we can take that too far. We are given wisdom and power to walk with fresh formation as we learn the way of Jesus.

The work of the Spirit in us isn’t magic. It doesn’t just happen. It’s a divine partnership with our willingness to humbly and courageously invite Jesus to help us live in step with his character and values.

Most of us have seen this in personal experience. We’ve seen how Christians (sometimes ourselves!) can go to church and read the Bible for decades, yet remain just as judgmental or angry as ever. We’ve seen how so many (ourselves included!) continue in the same cycles of broken relationships, defensiveness, or harmful arrogance in relating to others. This is static Christianity, and it is not discipleship. Jesus has something better for us.

But it requires a shift after we see that something “hasn’t worked.”

The first step is humility—humility to stop thinking that we’re experts at life (and just “got unlucky” the last time we really made a mess of things). The second is courage—but not simply courage to “try again” and hope for a better outcome. Rather, it’s courage to ask Jesus how we can actually do things differently next time, with greater wisdom, love, and maturity.

We can’t change others. But we can change ourselves, by God’s grace.
What if you paused, trusted Jesus, and tried something different this week:

• Instead of assuming you know what’s in someone else’s head—until it harms a friendship—you chose to ask curious questions and listen to responses.
• Instead of yelling and repeating yourself over and over to your spouse, you take a quiet moment with Jesus during a conflict, and then engage in an actual conversation.
• Instead of trying to deal with that personal struggle alone, you asked a friend to be a support for you.
• Instead of sharing that zinger post on social media that turned out not to be true, you chose to wait patiently and make sure what you’re sharing and promoting is both true and helpful.
• Instead of rage-scrolling on social media and feeling absolutely gross afterward, you turned off your phone, went for a walk, and volunteered somewhere that’s actually doing good work for the sake of others.

If our altitude sickness pal had gone back four days later with two friends and an oxygen tank, moving more slowly and checking in with others… now that would have been a humble and courageous step of formation—rather than a costly exercise in arrogance.

Without humility and courage, we’ll keep ending up in the same predicaments we’ve always been in—constantly expecting things to turn out differently without actually doing anything new.
With God’s help, we can learn. And we can grow.

Jesus, help me walk in wisdom and in newness. 

Peace,
Keith