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"Jesus answered 'Everyone who drinks this water will be thristy again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life The woman said to him, 'Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water' He told her, 'Go, call your husband and come back.' 'I have no husband,' she repled, Jesus said to her, 'You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.'" -- John 4:13-18 (NIV)
It is amazing how trapped we can become by our bad habits. They so often start as things that make us feel better But later we see them for the trouble they are.
We hear the stories of how hard it is to quit a bad habit. We know from our own experience how difficult it is for us to change how we do things in our lives. Think about all those broken New Year's resolutions. Though, what's even worse is not recognizing when something we do is actually bad for us.
Every addiction starts out as filling a need. Every compulsion and personal quirk began in response to wanting something to be an improvement of what we were experiencing.
When I was younger and felt tired and weak, I sat around the house and ate. That made me feel rested and full. I enjoyed that. But there was a dark side to that habit. It also made me sluggish and fat. I didn't enjoy that. I had to balance between these two feelings. I still do. Too often, the bad habit still wins.
So because bad habits reward us with something we enjoy, it is difficult to always see the problems they can create. Admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery. A lot of people will never acknowledge when something is wrong. They either genuinely feel that nothing is wrong, or else they are afraid of what will happen if they admit it.
Fear is the biggest single deterrent to change. It freezes us in place. Fear is its own bad habit. it makes us feel more secure with where we are. That feeds our need to feel better. But fear has a terrible dark side It makes us a prisoner.
I love some of my bad habits for the joy that they bring me. But I also recongize why they are bad. They hurt me. They diminsity me and make me less of the person I can be. They can get in the way of my relationships. They can disrupt my relationship with God.
I have learned the best way to break a bad habit is to replace it with a new one that satisfies the same need. The best way to replace fear is to surround yourself with people who strenghten your trust.
- Craig
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