Introduction to Holy Habits

Habit  \'hab- ət\  n   6: a settled tendency or usual manner of behavior.  7: a behavior pattern acquired by frequent repetition or psychological exposure that shows itself in regularity or increased facility of performance.

- Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary

Habit - why has that word become so distasteful in life today? What's wrong with being habitual? Could it be that the only habits we think of are those that are often detrimental and/or destructive? Or could it be as citizens of a free society, we loathe the idea of being stuck in a rut, always doing the same thing without ever giving much thought to what we are doing or even why we are doing it? Then again, maybe it is because we have distorted our understanding of habits and how they can be advantageous for us.

Once, when I worked for the Charlotte Fire Department, I was called in for a meeting with on of the deputy chiefs. As I entered his office, I found him standing by the large picture window that stretched the entire breadth of his ninth floor office. He stood there, intently staring down out at an event that was just outside of my line of sight. After what seemed to me to be a agonizingly long time, he called me over to the window to share with me his vista. I walked over to the window and peered down at what I fully expected to be something that would simply enthrall me. Instead, all that captured my eye was construction workers milling around laboring as they worked on digging the foundation of a new office tower that would soon add to the skyline of the bustling city. We stood there, transfixed at the sight for several moments before the chief broke the silence with this question: "Tim, what can you learn from this scene?" I stood there perplexed for a moment, before replying nonchalantly, "It takes a long time to build a building?" The chief smiled and then issued another question. "What about the backhoe operator; have you noticed his precision?" I cast my gaze down at the large backhoe that was carefully excavating the ground. My mind began to race. Scenario after scenario I played out in my mind, trying my best to try to relate what I was seeing with firefighting or fire administration; nothing. I began to carefully scrutinize the whole area to see if maybe the operator was doing something unsafe for himself or others; still nothing. Instead, all I could see was the backhoe engaged in an endless repetition of scooping up a bucket of dirt and dumping it in an awaiting dump truck. Time after time, the operator performed the same cycle, never wavering from his task...never making a mistake. The chief smiled again as he saw I was beginning to catch his vision. He once again broke the silence as he said, "You see Tim, that backhoe operator has perfected his skill. He never misses; he is always right on the mark." The chief then turned his gaze back on the operation playing out below us and continued speaking, "The man controlling that backhoe has become good at what he does only because he does the same thing day after day, without fail. It has become a habit, part of who this man is." With that, the chief turned to me, put his hand on my shoulder and looked me in the eyes as he said, "Tim, our habits make us who we are."

"Our habits make us who we are." Those words haunt me from time-to-time, because just like you, I have some habits that don't tend to shape me into who I want to be. Though I now have a deeper theological understanding of who I am as a child of God and do not see habits as the guiding force behind making us who we are, I do admit that they are buttresses of our being. In other words, instead of making us who we are, they support who we are. Yet, this may raise the question for each of us - who am I to be?  For those of us who claim to be a follower of Jesus, the goal is nothing less than holy.

So often in this day and age, we neglect our call to be holy. We shy away as we tend to attribute holiness to be of God and never us. But this is one of the great fallacies of our psyche. Many times in scripture, God issues the call for us to be holy.  No less than four times in Leviticus (11:44-45, 19:2, 20:7, 20:26) God says to the people, "You shall be holy; for I the Lord your God am holy." Peter also speaks to the need to be holy in 1 Peter 1:13-25, in which he invokes the aforementioned passage from Leviticus. Each time the people (and we today) are called upon to live holy lives, the obligation is to live instinct from those who don not know God and live separate from God. Your need and my need for holiness can be stated as it is written in the epistle 1 John 2:17, "And the world and its desire are passing away, but those who do the will of God live forever."

So if habits support who we are and we are called to be holy people, then we must engage in some holy practices. We need to begin replacing some of the sinful and destructive habits for which we are known with some habits that turn our focus from ourselves unto God. These habits, in and unto themselves, will not make us holy, but will lead us into a deeper relationship with God and with one another.

Some may think they first have to be a person of strong faith or a relatively good person before they can develop a holy lifestyle. Nothing can be further from the truth. For as Dietrich Bonhoeffer summarized in The Cost of Discipleship, "Faith is only real where there is the act of obedience, never without it, and faith only becomes faith in the act of obedience." Simply stated, a holy life is derived from holy living. Just like the backhoe operator mentioned earlier, followers of Jesus must perform their holy habits each and every day before they can achieve any measure of perfection.

The spiritual formation experience in which you are about to embark is designed to enable you to develop certain holy habits that will deepen your faith and strengthen you in your walk with Jesus. Many of these holy habits are derived from a couple of Faith Development classes taught in many mainstream Christian colleges and seminaries. Likewise, a seminary professor, Richard Foster also wrote on many of these practices in his book, Celebration of Discipline. I pray that you will learn, as I have, that just as with any discipline, you will get out of it what you put in it. Just as going to the gym for ten minutes a couple times a week will not make you physically fit, neither will just an occasional encounter with any of these practices make any significant change in your spiritual health. It will require time, practice, and devotion. If you are willing to accept this challenge and develop these holy habits, then heed this warning: You will acquire new priorities in life; You will live a different life; You will live a new life, a life with God.



How to Use This Devotional/Journal

1. Either sign up to have the Daily Devotional delivered to your email which you may do so by completing either of the subscription boxes located just toward the top and right of this page), or buy a print version at church. There are only two differences between these two forms of media: The printed version will cost you $8 while the electronic is free and the printed version has daily journal pages included, whereas with the electronic version, you will need to buy some type of journal on your own.

2. Each day, you have some reading and journaling to do. It's not much, but it will help you understand and appreciate that week's discipline a bit better.

3. Find a small group that may be using this study as their study curriculum. Being part of a small group discussion adds a great deal of depth and insight to each discipline and it also helps keep you accountable to trying to make these disciplines habits. The Small Group Discussion Guide is included as part of each Sunday's reading for that week.

Habits are easy to break, but can be rather hard to start. But as with anything worthwhile, it will take consistent determination. May God bless you in your endeavor.