Developing Habits Leads to Success

If you are at all interested in blogging, you’re probably aware of Problogger.net and the advice of professional blogger Darren Rowse. Even if you’re not interested in blogging, you'll want to read his post on Wednesday about habits:

I was speaking via email this week with a professional tennis player about blogging and they asked me the question: ‘how do I become a more successful blogger?’ I like to answer questions with question and shot back one of my own: ‘how do I become a more successful tennis player?’

The conversation that ensued was quite insightful. Not only did I learn how to improve my tennis but I learned a thing or two about blogging.

One of the things that I noticed about how this tennis player spoke was that he used the word ‘habits’ quite a bit. His philosophy was that one of the keys to his success was that he’d taught himself a series of habits that had become a part of his ‘tennis life’. He practised these habits consistently over time (most of them did not come naturally to him at first) until they became automatic reflexes. Over time as the habits became second nature he found they combined together in ways that began to lead to increased success.

We unpacked some of the habits he’d learnt over the next half an hour and I was interested to find that some of them were ‘skills‘ based habits (ie hitting a top spin serve) and some were ‘attitude’ based habits (ie always looking for opportunities no matter how desperate or hopeless the situation).

As I listened to my tennis playing friend I found myself reflecting upon the similarities of my experience of blogging. Good bloggers don’t just happen. Most emerge over time as they develop skills and attitudes that combine in ways that improve their blogging. Some of these habits seem to come pretty naturally but many need to be practised and intentionally worked upon.

So how do you become “successful” in your relationship with God? You develop, through practice, a series of habits that combine to improve your ability to speak to God, to hear Him and to understand Him. In one sense the effort you put in is not that different than the effort an athlete or a blogger puts in. (Remember the Apostle Paul compared his efforts with those of an athlete.) It takes some self-discipline, persistence and continuity. However, I think as you practice you will realize that your rewards are much greater than those of a tennis player or a blogger. You will begin to sense the Holy Spirit assisting you in your efforts and to realize you are in a dynamic and growing relationship with God.

"Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to gat a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly...." 1 Corinthians 9:24-26.

Nurturing the Life Within #4

I know a woman who went to great lengths to ensure the healthy birth of her baby. She ate tons of vegetables, insisted on natural childbirth, even stopped cooking with aluminum pots because she read that aluminum coming off the pots could be dangerous to her fetus. Oddly, however, she continued to drink White Russians—a combination of milk, Kahlua and vodka--throughout her pregnancy. She explained to me that she had drunk so many during her lifetime that they were just like milk to her.

She had a blind spot when it came to White Russians. She didn’t seem to realize that a big glass of milk with two shots of alcohol in it is not the same thing as a big glass of milk—especially not when it comes to the healthy development of a baby.

The truth is, we all have blind spots. There are lots of things in our lives that we think are just like milk—and, in fact, they may be mostly milk—but they are dangerous to our spiritual lives nonetheless. That’s why daily habits of Bible reading, prayer and quiet time to think about God are so important. These are the ways that God reveals to us our blind spots so that the new life within us came begin to thrive and to grow to maturity.

Nurturing the Life Within #3

When you compare nurturing an unborn child through pregnancy and nurturing your spiritual life, you immediately think of the changes you make to diet during pregnancy. You start eating and drinking the right things—things that will make the baby grow—and you stop eating and drinking things that will harm the baby. Similarly, when you want to nurture your new spiritual life, you begin to consume the things that will make your faith grow and stop consuming those things that drag your mind away from God.

Unfortunately, the change in diet during pregnancy doesn’t always happen, does it? We all know stories of children born with developmental disorders because they were malnourished during pregnancy, or worse, affected by cigarettes, drugs or alcohol consumed by the mother. Sometimes this happens because the mother is uneducated. More often it happens because the mother is lazy or unable to set aside her own desires for immediate gratification during pregnancy. She just keeps eating, drinking or taking whatever she wants to. Even mothers who start out with good intentions slip back into old habits occasionally as the pregnancy wears on.

Are there any parallels to nurturing the spiritual life here? You bet. When we don’t grow as Christians—when we fail to nourish the new life within adequately—it is almost always because we are lazy, bored or unable to deny ourselves some short term gratification. We skip reading the Bible because we watched too much TV in the evening and now we are falling asleep. We forget to pray because we are running around planning some festivity or family event, finishing a great book, exercising, browsing the Internet, flipping through catalogs, or whatever it is that we like to do. And because of that, we wreak havoc on the life that should be growing inside us.

When I have trouble turning off the TV and spending a couple minutes with God tonight, I’m going to think of those pathetic two-pound crack-addicted babies born gasping for breath. Surely I can find the will and determination to nurture the life of Christ within me a little better than that.

Nurturing the Life Within #2

I was reading The Treasure Principle by Randy Alcorn today and I realized Jesus made the same point I was struggling to make yesterday about perspective and priority. He made it in a single verse. "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy, went and sold all he had and bought that field." (Matthew 13:44)

Here's what Alcorn writes about the parable:

From the moment of his discovery, the traveler’s life changes. The treasure captures his imagination, becomes the stuff of his dreams. It’s his reference point. His new center of gravity. The traveler takes every new step with this treasure in mind. He experiences a radical paradigm shift....

The traveler made short-term sacrifices to obtain a long-term reward. “It cost him everything he owned,” you might lament. Yes, but it gained him everything that mattered.

If we miss the phrase “in his joy” we miss everything. The man wasn’t exchanging lesser treasures for greater treasures out of dutiful drudgery but out of joyful exhilaration. He would have been a fool not to do exactly what he did.

The man in the parable and the pregnant woman go "all in" so to speak. They begin to organize their lives around achieving a new goal. This is the attitude that you and I can have when we realize that Christ's life within us is as important to secure as treasure in field of otherwise worthless dirt and as important to nurture as an unborn baby. With joy we can begin to take steps that will make that treasure our own and which will cause that new life to thrive.

Nurturing the Life Within #1

Mother’s Day has made me think of lessons I learned during pregnancy about nurturing the life within. (I need to thank my aunt who sent me a tape during my pregnancy days of a Mother's Day talk she gave at her church. Some of these insights are definitely hers. Thanks Marnie!)

The thing about pregnancy is this: as soon as you find out you are pregnant, your perspective about everything changes. And I mean everything. Food. Drink. Books. Money. Free time. Home décor. Certain types of recreation. Rest. Suddenly your entire focus is on protecting and nurturing the new life inside yourself. I know this is true for prospective dads as well. You immediately become super motivated to do whatever it takes to prepare a home and a future for your child.

There are great lessons here to be applied to nurturing our spiritual lives which I thought I would blog about for a few days:

The first, of course, is priority and persistence. Most pregnant women and soon-to-be dads make preparing for the new life an immediate priority. They get as much information as possible as soon as possible and they begin to act on that information right away. Even when they don’t yet know everything about what to expect, they begin to act on what they do know. For example, during the first few weeks of that first pregnancy you didn’t know much about delivery and you didn’t yet know how to breastfeed. But you probably knew you needed to drink milk and you did it, right? When sometimes the thought of eventually giving birth or raising a child overwhelmed you, you turned your focus back to what little things you could do today to prepare for the baby and you did them.

Try that approach with your spiritual life. We all tend to overwhelm ourselves sometimes with thoughts of “What if God wants me to face this or give up that…” Or, “I am such bad Christian. God can never use me.” This is pretty similar to thinking during the early days of pregnancy, “I can’t possibly endure labor and delivery” or “I am too irresponsible to be a good parent.” Don’t focus on scary future unknowns. Focus on what you know you need to do now. Read your Bible a little everyday. Talk to God everyday. Making these small, easy things a priority and persistently sticking to them—rather than wringing your hands and procrastinating—will result a healthy new life.

Where Should I Focus My Time?

I don’t know about you, but I often wonder where I should focus my time. There are so many things vying for my attention and they all seem like they should be given a high priority. I feel like if I could focus on just one thing, I could make some headway—but what should that one thing be? I ask God for direction and I wonder what His answer will be.

Yesterday I happened to catch a couple minutes of Christian radio as I drove between the grocery store (priority of feeding the kids) and the post office (priority mail to my mom for Mother’s Day). The sermon was on Colossians 4:2: “Devote yourselves to prayer.” I was struck by the simplicity of the verse. God said devote yourselves to prayer. Focus on prayer. That's pretty straightforward language. It was as if God were saying to me, “You keep wondering what to devote your time and attention to. I’ve already told you. Devote yourself to prayer.”

I don't want to spoil the simplicity of what God is saying by blog, blog, blogging on about it. Just take some time today to think about what it means in your life. I'll be thinking about what it means in mine.

“Devote yourselves to prayer, being alert and thankful.” Colossians 4:2

Getting What You Need to Grow from the Bible

Here’s something to try this month as you read the Old and New Testaments. Take a minute to jot down the theme of each chapter you have just read. I do this right in my Bible at the beginning of the chapter. (I have The Inductive Study Bible that has blanks at the beginning of each chapter, as well as wide margins, for writing notes.) If you don’t like to write in your Bible you could use a 3x5 card or folded piece of notebook paper as a bookmark and write down chapter themes on it.

I have been jotting down the theme of each Psalm I read this month. It is amazing to me how the simple act of having to write down a few words—not even a full sentence in most cases—forces me to really think through what I have been reading. It makes me think about what the words meant to the original writer and what they mean for my own Christian life today.

If you are having trouble figuring out the theme of the chapter you are reading, ask yourself some of the following: Does this chapter tell me something about what God is like? Does this chapter tell me something about God’s promises or His Word? Does this chapter tell me something I should do if I want to live a life that pleases God? Does this chapter tell me something I should not do? If I were placed in the situation described by this chapter, how would God want me to act?

To go back to the azalea analogy I used a couple days ago, taking time to distill what you are reading down to a theme is a way of making sure you are digging your roots deep into the soil and drawing up the nutrients you need rather than slowly starving while everything you need to grow is right there within reach.

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Spiritual Habits and High Cholesterol

I have high cholesterol. You wouldn’t know it to look at me. I look relatively healthy. And I haven’t done anything all that “bad” in terms of lifestyle to warrant such disastrous cholesterol numbers. The thing is, I inherited a tendency to high cholesterol. Bummer. So to combat the natural tendency inherent in my body, I exercise every day. I eat things like oat bran and psyllium fiber and plant sterols. I try to avoid saturated fat. It’s not really very fun but the hard work has paid off. My cholesterol numbers are getting lower.

It occurred to me while I was on the elliptical machine today that the discipline I apply to my life in order to avoid clogged arteries is a lot like the spiritual habits you and I need to develop. We all inherited a human nature that, left alone, will clog our hearts and minds and block the flow of Christ’s life through us. In order to counteract our natural tendencies, we need to do things that will rid our hearts and minds of the “bad stuff” and open our mental and emotional pathways to Him. We need to get active spiritually: to pray, to read the Bible, and to make space to hear Him in our lives so we can begin to act on what He says. It may not be all that much fun at first to turn off the TV and open the Bible or get out of bed a few minutes early to pray, but it will pay off.

“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Romans 12:2

Spiritual Habits--Taking Advantage of the Nutrients God Offers

Last fall my husband and I rescued six azalea bushes that were "trapped" underneath an overgrown evergreen tree in our front yard. The azaleas were being choked by the tree's roots and received virtually no sun. They were slowly headed toward certain death. We transplanted them to the backyard, enriched the soil around them, added fertilizer and plenty of water. This spring five of them are thriving, bursting with hundreds of blossoms. One, however, is looking pretty scrawny--just two blooms and several completely dry, dead branches.

What is the difference between the bushes? They are all offered good soil, appropriate light, fertilizer and water. The difference is that five are taking advantage of what is offered in their new surroundings and one is not. For whatever reason, the sixth azalea's roots are not reaching down into the soil and drawing up the nutrients available.

Developing strong spiritual habits is like thrusting your roots down deep into the soil and drawing up the available resources. God has offered us a rich and rewarding relationship with Him. It's there for the taking--but we have to reach out and grab the raw materials which the relationship needs in order to thrive. We do that by talking to God, listening to Him talk to us through the words He has written and allowing Him space in our lives to get us growing.

Don't get discouraged if you are having trouble keeping up with the habits we have been developing over the past several months. Just jump in and start again today. Pray for 3 focused minutes 3 times a day. Spend 7 or 8 minutes reading the New Testament. Spend another 2 or 3 minutes reading a Psalm or other portion of the Old Testament. Turn off any noise that dulls your mind and keeps it from turning toward God (like repetitive cycles of the news while you commute or background TV while you work around the house).

May (at least where I live) is a perfect time to look around at everything blooming and remember that you can experience the same new, vibrant growth in your spiritual life. You just have to grab the nutrients God offers you.