Here we go again!

Have you ever caught yourself saying this phrase to yourself or out loud? Something happens in your life that seems very similar to something that happened before and that is your first thought. You have an argument with your spouse that seems a lot like one you had about 7 years ago. Your kid gets in trouble at school just like he did last school year. Someone in your church is making a complaint against your pastor just like that one guy did in 2009. Your doctor tells you that your symptoms are just like the ones from a three years ago. Your group of friends start arguing and one of them is hurt and pouting and you say to yourself, “Seriously??? This is SO Jr. High!”

We have an emotional memory. It’s called our amygdala. If you don’t know anything about it, you can what I wrote about it here.

Our amygdala, or our emotional memory, triggers us to something from the past that is similar to something we are going through now. Physiologically, it creates certain feelings in us. And it causes us to think to ourselves, “This is going to turn out the same way it did the last time” and we have those emotions: the anxiety, the fear, the frustration.

But here’s the thing…. God has done some work in us and in our situation since the last time this happened. If we are following Him daily, He is changing us. If we are praying, He is changing our circumstances and other people. The result doesn’t have to be the way our amygdala cautions us it will.

There’s a very good chance that this will be different, because God has intervened.