Though some of us have opportunities for particularly life-defining moments, a vast majority of who we are is defined by our habits.
It isn’t a stretch to say that many of the people in Scripture we admire most became admirable because of their close attention to their habits and the patterns in their lives to which they gave priority.
Habits in Scripture
- “Train yourself for godliness.” (I Timothy 4:7b)
- “Do not be deceived…a person will reap what he sows.” (Galatians 6:7)
- “…three times a day (Daniel) got down on his knees, prayed, and gave thanks to God…” (Daniel 6:10b)
- “Pray without ceasing” (I Thessalonians 5:17)
- “Rejoice in hope; be patient in affliction; be persistent in prayer.” (Romans 12:12)
- “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” (Luke 9:23b)
- “Not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” (Hebrews 10:25)
- “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, (Jesus) got up, went out, and made his way to a deserted place; and there he was praying.” (Mark 1:35)
- “(Jesus) went about doing good” (Acts 10:38b)
How Habits Work
I have benefited significantly from the work of James Clear and his book Atomic Habits in how I’ve tried to approach my own walk.
Clear points out that most people tend to focus on outcomes. “I didn’t do _____ today.” This is at the surface, and will ultimately be symptomatic of what’s happening on the inside.
A secondary level is our processes. These are the things we do regularly. Habits do determine outcomes. But what drives our habits?
The inner core level is one of identity. This speaks to the issue of who I am and why I do what I do. If you are looking to become a different, better kind of person, can you imagine it as an identity that you are trying to own?
Consider these differences:
- OUTCOME FOCUS: “I’m trying to quit smoking”
- PROCESS FOCUS: “When I feel a craving to smoke, I chew gum instead.”
- IDENTITY FOCUS: “I’m striving to be a healthy person.”
- OUTCOME FOCUS: “I’m trying to jog more often.”
- PROCESS FOCUS: “I spend time on the treadmill three days per week.”
- IDENTITY FOCUS: “I’m a runner.”
If I fix my identity on Jesus, the “founder and perfecter” of our faith (Hebrews 12:2), what are the kinds of things that a Jesus-focused person would be doing?
- What would a Jesus person do when he or she wakes up?
- How would I approach my workday?
- How would I interact with my family?
- What would I prioritize in my free time?
- What would I include in my evening routines?
An identity-driven set of personal goals can inspire many parts of our lives.
- OUTCOME FOCUS: “I’m trying to pray more”
- PROCESS FOCUS: “I read a daily devotional thought”
- IDENTITY FOCUS: “I was created to bring honor to God”
Habit Implementation
So what does it actually look like to change as a person? How do we shift our habits and patterns?
Clear’s Four Laws of Good Habits and Four Laws of Breaking Bad Habits are a useful taxonomy to consider. All habits move in the same pattern: Cue, Craving, Response, and Reward. Something prompts me toward one of my habits. I find myself wanting it. I do something about my craving. I feel a certain way based on what I’ve done.
| STARTING GOOD HABITS | PATTERNS | STOPPING BAD HABITS |
|---|---|---|
| Make it OBVIOUS | CUE | Make it INVISIBLE |
| Make it ATTRACTIVE | CRAVING | Make it UNATTRACTIVE |
| Make it EASY | RESPONSE | Make it DIFFICULT |
| Make it SATISFYING | REWARD | Make it UNSATISFYING |
It becomes key, then, to make a desirable behavior the clearest, easiest path for me to follow. Likewise, for the habits I desire to break, I need to make them as inconvenient as possible to repeat.
- If you want to drink more water, make an effort to put containers with water in many of the spaces you occupy so that it’s convenient and available.
- If you want to remember to take your pills, keep them located in an obvious place, like your bathroom counter, along with a cup of water so you’ll be more likely to see and remember.
- If you want to write notes to people more often, keep stationary handy with a pen you enjoy. Keep a handy list of addresses ready nearby.
- If you want to stop eating sweets, keep fewer in your house, keep them in a place that’s hard to get to, and instead make more available what you should eat instead.
Consider also stacking your habits.
“Every time I ___________, I will then also ____________.”
Or build in rewards:
“Every time I ___________, I then get to _____________.”
Connecting Habits and Faith
So take what we’ve been discussing and apply it to your life with God. No one can change everything over night, so I would encourage you to pick one thing. If you could put the details of your life into a big pile on the table and identify one habit that would move the most other things in a good direction, what would it be?
- What are some of the things you should be doing more regularly?
- What are the things you really need to stop?
- Where are some of the spaces in your life where it is most realistic to include the good things?
- How can you make doing the right thing flow naturally from another thing you’re already doing?
- Who are people that do well what you’re aspiring to do?
- How can you frame your goals in terms of an identity you are trying to embody?
- How can you reward yourself in a way to make doing the right thing more satisfying?
Challenge: Rightly Ordered Loves
Augustine of Hippo, at the age of nineteen, read a dialogue by the Roman philosopher Cicero who stated that every person aspires to be happy, but a majority of people are wretched. No one aspires to be miserable, in constant conflict, or characterized by unfulfilled longings. So Augustine began to reflect on the source of the problem.
Augustine concluded that our problem is that our loves are out of order. It is disordered love that drives us toward sinfulness and misery. Not that everything we love is bad, but rather that we don’t love the most important things as well as we should with the prioritization that we should, and so we end up chasing our more carnal and base desires to our own detriment.
Take time to write a list of your priorities and aspirations, and also of the things to which you must regularly give your time out of necessity. If you set God and your identity in Christ at the top of this list, how does it affect the list? How might you reimagine what you already have going in order to harness it for your growth and expressions of love and devotion?
What does it look like for you to love the right things in the right order?
What habits have you cultivated in your life?
What has worked for you?
What has been more challenging to implement?
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