Fleeing Habit for Habit's Sake
For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! 2 Timothy 3: 2-5, New King James Version
Nathan Foster might be said to have grown up in the house that discipline built. His father Richard wrote the Christian classic Celebration of Discipline. But in The Making of an Ordinary Saint, his own memoir reflecting on the power and application of Christian habits, Nathan connects, "The moment disciplines become an end in themselves, they have failed."
Paul concurs on just how easily we can keep the outward motions of a habit or discipline without a heart connection and transformation for which it really exists. Given the company that this dualistic reality keeps in 2 Timothy 3:2-5, it would seem likely that we can become so accustomed to performing the rites of Christianity that we invest our hearts elsewhere. Those who prop up the pro forma, Paul says, can simultaneously love their self-indulgence on every other front.
As we turn our attentional energy elsewhere, away from prayer, Bible reading, and ministry which have become cold habit, we are in danger of becoming what Paul describes as despisers of the good. Focused on the "have to" rather than the "get to," we lose sight of the gift of grace that is God's Word, for instance, and flip through it on the way to what we really have to do or want to do. We don't pause long enough in prayer to reckon with what a blessing it is to stand in that august place by Christ's righteousness, and putting ourselves last in ministry becomes a hassle to be endured rather than an opportunity to learn further about the transforming power of the Godhead.
With Paul's strong admonition to turn away, we get the old apostle's reminder that there are always alternatives, always ways of escape. God never leaves, says Acts, His people without a witness. If we seek Him, we will find Him, even close by that which has become mere habit to us. He can inhabit the praises of His people even when we have ceased to be fully moved by the reality of those praises.
Nathan Foster might be said to have grown up in the house that discipline built. His father Richard wrote the Christian classic Celebration of Discipline. But in The Making of an Ordinary Saint, his own memoir reflecting on the power and application of Christian habits, Nathan connects, "The moment disciplines become an end in themselves, they have failed."
Paul concurs on just how easily we can keep the outward motions of a habit or discipline without a heart connection and transformation for which it really exists. Given the company that this dualistic reality keeps in 2 Timothy 3:2-5, it would seem likely that we can become so accustomed to performing the rites of Christianity that we invest our hearts elsewhere. Those who prop up the pro forma, Paul says, can simultaneously love their self-indulgence on every other front.
As we turn our attentional energy elsewhere, away from prayer, Bible reading, and ministry which have become cold habit, we are in danger of becoming what Paul describes as despisers of the good. Focused on the "have to" rather than the "get to," we lose sight of the gift of grace that is God's Word, for instance, and flip through it on the way to what we really have to do or want to do. We don't pause long enough in prayer to reckon with what a blessing it is to stand in that august place by Christ's righteousness, and putting ourselves last in ministry becomes a hassle to be endured rather than an opportunity to learn further about the transforming power of the Godhead.
With Paul's strong admonition to turn away, we get the old apostle's reminder that there are always alternatives, always ways of escape. God never leaves, says Acts, His people without a witness. If we seek Him, we will find Him, even close by that which has become mere habit to us. He can inhabit the praises of His people even when we have ceased to be fully moved by the reality of those praises.
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