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PROGRAM D-7946
They tell us it takes 21 days to break an old habit, and 65 days to establish a new one! Wow, change comes hard and slow for us, doesn’t it? I want to examine the idea of changing, and why it seems to be so difficult for us.
Think about it: What are the things in yourself which you keep intending or trying to change, but it just hasn’t happened yet? You’re going to be more organized; you’re going to eat better; you’re going to start exercising regularly; you’re going to read your Bible and pray more—most of us have many good intentions about making changes in our lives, but too often those intentions are never realized. Why?
For one thing, change is very uncomfortable. We have dug ourselves some little ruts in which we operate. Those ruts frequently are bad habits that need to be replaced, but we’ve been there so long that we’re comfortable there. As soon as we start to change anything, we go into a transition period which is anything but comfortable.
But think about it: We can never improve without changing, so unless we’re willing to stagnate where we are, we have to learn how to incorporate change into our lives in little and big ways. There are many skills, disciplines, and good habits that we can only learn by teaching ourselves to change.
For example, if we wanted to become better listeners, we would have to change some of our bad listening habits and replace them with good ones. Maybe we tend to interrupt others often. To change that bad habit, we would have to consciously work at not interrupting, perhaps telling others to let us know when we do interrupt them, until we become more and more sensitive to this bad habit and gradually begin to change. It wouldn’t happen overnight, but we certainly could become better listeners if we were willing to change.
Remember, when we decide to change a bad habit, at first it’s very uncomfortable, and our natural tendency is to go back into our old ruts. I want to encourage you not to let the uncomfortableness of change keep you from changing. Expect to be uncomfortable. It won’t last forever, but it will be there for a while. Live through the uncomfortable feelings, but don’t give up!
Paul said, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Not by yourself, but through Christ, you can change if you’re prepared to live through the transition period, get used to the new territory, and not allow those uncomfortable feelings to keep you from changing.