HABITS, HABITS

Biblical Truth, BMMC, Christian Discipleship, Spiritual Growth, , ,

SanAntonioSisters[1]Have you ever paid attention to those outfits that nuns wear?  Some describe the way they dress as the “Amish Catholic” style. Their garb is called a “habit.”  That, of course, makes sense because they are obviously in the “habit” of wearing the same thing every day.  Habit is actually our English word that comes from the Latin word habitare, which means “dwelling place” or “the place where one normally lives.”  That’s obviously true for the nuns– they live life in those black and white uniforms.  It’s where they dwell– literally.

Now.  Enough about nuns. What about you and me?  (My apologies to any nuns that might be reading this blog.)  Here is a truth:  Our character is a composite of our habits.  To find out what our true character is, we must look at our  habits. A person’s character is NOT what they WANT to be like, but what has been practiced over and over in life.  Our character is how we live our lives, and our habits– our daily habits– are the evidence.

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THE CHIEF AND ME

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IMG_1020The following is an excerpt from chapter three of the rough draft of a new book I am presently writing.  The book focuses on the last months of my elderly father’s earthly life, and the myriad of conversations we had during visits with him at The Oaks, an assisted living center.  Dad had just moved out of the house he had lived in since 1957, and away from the small town he had called home for over 80 years.  It was no easy decision for him, but it was one of necessity.  In this exchange, I was helping him unpack his stuff the day after arriving at his new home– a modest two-room apartment that would serve as his final home address.

       Together we unloaded the final container of stuff I had brought, giving us a unique opportunity to talk about things past.   In the box were a few pictures and some small items that had special significance to him. I placed the black and white five-by-seven picture of my mom next to his bed as he had ordered. Among a few framed pictures of family and friends, one item caught my eye. It was a small, brown leather book no larger than four inches square, packed full of names, addresses and phone numbers. Turning back some of the pages, I saw that most of them were obviously quite old—entries written in fountain pens, and even addresses without zip codes.

      “What in the world is this, Dad?” He stopped digging in his billfold long enough to look intently at what I was showing him.

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HOME FIELD ADVANTAGE

Biblical Truth, BMMC, Christian Discipleship, Spiritual Growth, , ,

In sports, it’s always better to play your arch rival on your own turf; to have home field advantage.  I don’t know if it’s crowd support, familiarity with the surroundings, or home cooking with the referees– it just seems to workProcessed with VSCOcam with e8 preset out better when your arch rival has to come to YOUR house to play the all-important contest.

Statistics even prove that over time, the home team is always more successful in most every sport.  In Major League Baseball it’s 54%, in the National Football League it’s 57%, in the NBA it’s 61%, and in Major League Soccer the victory percentage of games played at home is up to 70%.  That’s nothing to laugh at.  Home field advantages are legit!   If you’re going to be in a turf war, you’re better off if you play on your home turf!

The Bible seems to agree.

On more than one occasion Jesus sent his disciples out into a hostile world to: “Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give.”  Jesus gave them tremendous power over the Enemy– the Devil.  But Luke 9 records that it didn’t always work that way.  On one occasion, a young boy was tormented by a demon but the disciples failed miserably when they tried to cast the demons out of him.  Wait a minute.  What happened?  Did Jesus lie?  Did He abandon his disciples and leave them powerless against the Enemy?  Let’s look closer.

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UNCLOG YOUR DRAIN

BMMC, Christian Discipleship, Spiritual Growth, , , ,


sinkLetting go of the past is not easy.  Being forgiven for our mistakes and being washed clean from sin is one thing, but getting rid of the messy stink of the past is another thing altogether.  We are aware that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin, and that those sins were atoned for on the cross, but getting over the feeling of guilt, and shame, and hurt, is easier said than done.  Sometimes it feels like there’s just too much stuff to dispose of, and that eventually God’s going to say, “Enough!  I can’t take any more of your junk!”  It’s like our spiritual drain gets clogged and stuff starts to back up.  “Pray harder,” they tell us.  Or, “You just have to bear the consequences.  You got yourself into this mess; you’ll have to deal with it.”

What do you do when your spiritual drain gets clogged?  When there’s just too much to deal with?

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VERTICAL GAZE

BMMC, Christian Discipleship, Master's Commission, Spiritual Growth, ,

Looking UpLet me come straight to the point.  Life is meant to be lived with a vertical gaze. Think about it. It’s true from the time we are born and beyond. Babies first learn to make eye contact looking up. Toddlers learn to walk by looking up toward their destination, almost always with hands raised high. Looking up is how we first learn, and how learning is always done.  It is an obvious, inescapable fact.

Child to parent.  Pupil to teacher.  Apprentice to master.  Creature to his Creator.

The real problem arrives when we think we’re big enough to shift our learning posture and begin looking down.  It first happens when we convince ourselves that there is no one in the room “bigger than me.”  My father called it being “too big for your britches,” and whenever I heard him use that phrase it never turned out so well for me.

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