The Seven Year Glitch

I was lying in bed last night and noticed an interesting trend in my life. An earlier remark that I made to my friend Frank is what initial sparked the realization that I am experiencing what has been called a seven-year itch. Although the term is most commonly used to describe the cyclical dissatisfaction men (and women) feel upon their seven year of marriage, I figured that since it was seven years ago (2000) that severe migraines heralded the reality that I was to graduate Bible college with ample debt but no faith to speak of and that for all intents and purposes my relationship with the faith has been much like a dysfunctional marriage, that I felt I could appropriate the term as a description of my experience.

It becomes even more disturbing as I follow the pattern backwards. It was in 1993 that I initially "returned" to the faith upon entering the Air Force after years, probably seven years to be exact, of teen aged rebellion starting when I was 13 in 1986. I could go even further with this dispensational interpretation of my life but it is painful enough to look back 21 years with out evaluating the balance that remains. There is not doubt that the proposition, that every seven years I experience a major shift in the way I live my life, is compelling. However, knowing that in no way brings me any comfort in my present circumstances. I recall all to intimately the torrent that accompanied each of those shifts, leaving me drained of all my knowledge, naked and empty handed on a foreign shore, forced to rebuild my perception anew before the next wave of doubt and disillusionment forced me to seek another refuge. Perhaps there is still hope that I can break this wrecked cycle.