Habits

I sit down to draft a blog and realize that I haven’t posted since February 16. It’s not like nothing has been going on. On Monday I drove to Angola with a dear friend and shared with the Kairos men on death row. It would be better to say they shared with me. We go mostly as observers as they work through studies with open sharing. Their growth in the two years I have known them is impressive. If men on death row can grow in love and dedication to the Lord, what should we be doing?

I knew it was going to be a short week since I was out on Monday and will be out today as I have two teeth pulled. Time moves so quickly. It’s so easy to fall into patterns. I had a pattern of posting each day. This week I fell into a pattern of not doing so. It didn’t take a dramatic event or even a deliberate decision. It just happened.

“We are what we repeatedly do.” Aristotle. We are creatures of habit. Consider how much of what we do each day is what we did yesterday and what we will do tomorrow. When we rise, when we go to bed, what we eat, what we wear, what we say… all habits.

It’s kind of discouraging to consider just how unoriginal we are. We consider it a good or even exciting day, when we just do something different.  Much of what we do, many of our habits, we aren’t really thrilled about. We have habits not always because we’ve discovered the best or most satisfying way to do something. It’s just what we do, because it’s what we always do. Frightening how little sense that makes.

Most of us feel our lives could be better. We could be doing a better job of whatever we believe we should be doing. For example, as Christians, we believe we should be growing in our knowledge of Christ and making Him better known, but we’re not.

That leaves us with an awful lot we would like to change. If we give it much thought we realize that if we could change our habits we could change our lives. We could be accomplishing what we know we should. Why don’t we?

Habits are powerful. They are as difficult to intentionally start as they are to stop. If we give our habits much thought, it’s often tough to recall how we got into them, and have no idea how to get out of them.

Habits are comfortable. They are easier to live with than to change. We are so used to them, that they seem part of us.  They identify us. Who would we be without them?

We are afraid to abandon habits. A change of habit takes us into the great unknown. The unknown is dark and different and scary. We aren’t in love with all our habits, but better the enemy we know, right?

What are we doing each day just because it’s what we do? Another friend and I have gotten into the habit of getting together for coffee or breakfast once each week. It’s been a great thing. It hasn’t taken anything away from the rest of our lives, in fact, this small habit has been life-enhancing. What other little changes could I make that might improve my life and the life of someone else? Shouldn’t I control my habits and not let them control me?