Why Change?

Cutting out the bad habits isn’t enough. We’ve all been there, done that, tried and failed. Some cut out alcohol but find a new unhealthy addiction to diet coke, or we give up late night television for aimless reading of the tabloid headlines. Or, perhaps things we may feel better about – such as choosing not to go out with friends 3-4 nights a week because we need to “focus” and exercise certain disciplines. However, we cut out our regular outings just to sit at home in front of the T.V. or wandering aimlessly on the computer. Sure, we aren’t ‘distracted’ by friends or our old need of always having to be with or around people, but we are no more focused then we were.

In fact, we are fooled. We believe in a lie that we don’t even realize exists. We feel good about our decision and discipline to not go out, to share life at a lesser degree with certain people, or to learn to spend regular time all alone. Unfortunately, the only thing that has changed is the habit – the packaging, the symptom, the technique we use to just “numb-out” to reality. The root of the original “need” to realign our attention or our focus hasn’t been addressed, much less satisfied. Instead, we’ve just simply replaced our habit, our pattern, our routines, and even our focus. Yes, even our focus. Sadly, that focus is just as lost, aimlessly pointed, and as random as it was before – never really locking its eyes on the prize, never pointing its laser beams at anything of value, never pursuing the things that God tugs at our hearts to pursue – just a more random, pointless, life-draining different focus than before.

In every human being there exists this void that was designed to be filled by God and God alone. We’ve all experienced the feeling of this void, and we’ve all tried to fill that void in error. In the “Ultimate Journey,” this void is referred to as a vacuum – a pull in our hearts and our souls that is only satisfied when God himself is the one we lean on for just that.

It really isn’t a matter of the habit, or the practice, or the routine…it’s a matter of the heart. Are you changing or cutting out this or that to make room for an intentional pursuit of God, or are you ultimately, sometimes without realizing it, just making room for a new habit, a new pattern, a new routine, that down the road, will leave you just as empty and broken as the past?
Be intentional about your focus, and don’t fall prey to the losing pursuits of simply cutting out one bad habit to form another. Bad is bad, no matter what the degree of “bad” it is. There is still no lasting, legitimate fulfillment if you aren’t executing the disciplines necessary to FIRST fill the God-shaped void in your life and your heart.

If you are changing your habits for any other reason than to pursue God and the amazing, wild plans He has for you, than you will unfortunately just be disappointed, broken, and lost again and again. And…what’s worse, is the people around you, the people you share life with, the people that LOVE YOU will also be on the hurting, losing, broken end if you aren’t intentional about your foresight and your disciplines, and that’s just selfish.