Today’s Post Written By: Rae Lynn DeAngelis

Have you seen the movie called Edge of Tomorrow yet? I really liked it, but when the movie first began, I thought to myself This is really weird! Now, if you haven’t seen the movie yet, and you want to be surprised, stop reading now.

Reminiscent of the movie Ground Hog Day with Bill Murray, the main character (Tom Cruise) must repeat the exact day, over and over, until he is able to accomplish his mission to save the world from human extinction.

Every time the main character makes a mistake, he dies. But after each time he dies, he wakes up and repeats the same day so that he can learn from his mistakes and move closer towards fulfilling his mission. It’s a Sci-fi, so of course there’s nothing terribly realistic about the story line. But I do believe the movie carries a powerful message about learning from our mistakes, never giving up, and pressing on until we fulfill our life purpose.

Believe me, there are some days I wish I could do over. When I lose my temper or say something I shouldn’t have; when I miss an opportunity to share God’s love or be a blessing to someone; when I fall into temptation and sadden God with my sinful choices, I wish I could hit the rewind button of my life and give it another try, doing things the right way this time.

While we can’t rewind a bad day and do it again, I believe God does provide opportunities with similar scenarios so that we can apply any past lessons for future tests. Like taking the SATs in high school, we can keep taking God’s exams as long as we are willing to put forth the effort.

Sometimes we get it right and sometimes we don’t, but God doesn’t give up on us. He is extremely patient and wants us to succeed.

“The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9)

God has a plan and purpose for each of our lives. (Jeremiah 29:11) We all have a mission, and as long as we have breath, God will keep taking us through test after test, hoping we will learn from our mistakes.  Like déjà vu, if you start to notice a common theme popping up in your life over and over again, you might want to ask God if He’s providing you another opportunity to get a passing grade.

When we mess up—we need to fess up. And after we repent and make amends, we need to trust and believe that God works all things together for His good—especially our bad day do-overs.