M2-S4: PRUNING HABITS OF MIND

SUMMARY

  • We are always a slave to something: either sin or righteousness.
  • A habit is a groove formed in us that is a shortcut to a particular outcome (for good or ill).
  • When they are well-formed, habits help us get along in the world.
  • Habits are formed by strong stimuli (reward or pain) and by repetition.
  • Addiction comes from deep grooves created by outsized rewards.
  • Our lives are a result of “a long obedience in the same direction”.

PRACTICE: REGULARLY PRUNE HABITS OF MIND

  • Spend some time discerning your habits of mind.
  • Look for the regular patterns in your ordinary day—where does your mind go during these patterns?
  • Discern which habits of mind are worthwhile and which are holding you back from life in the kingdom.
  • Identify some small steps toward pruning these habits of mind.
  • Try out small steps, reflect on your progress, and adjust as needed.
  • Involve your group as you try out the small steps.

SCRIPTURE FOCUS

Romans 6:8-23

  • v16-17: we are always slaves to something: either sin or righteousness.

WHAT IS A HABIT?

Our main idea this week is to shift from “outside” distractions, things that come in and threaten to pull us away from the things of the kingdom that need our attention.

And if we’re honest, the greatest pull away from the things of the kingdom doesn’t come from outside of us, does it?

It comes from our ingrained habits, the “patterns of teaching” we’ve learned from the world, in our childhood, from our workplaces and people we’re around. We have a word for these patterns of teaching that soak into our bones and that we find ourselves doing automatically, as if we were enslaved to them.

In modern terms, we call them habits.

Let’s talk for a minute about habits. What is a habit?

A habit is a groove formed in us over time as a kind of shortcut to a particular outcome (for good or ill). The fact that we are wired for habits is a very good thing and something that enables us to cope with reality without burning ourselves out on the simplest tasks.

Take the activity of drying yourself off after a shower. When you get out of the shower and reach for a towel, how much mental and physical effort is involved? Would you consider this a grueling task? Why? Because we do it almost completely automatically. That is, until we’re injured! Suddenly, the task of drying off becomes conscious and something that is suddenly a problem to be solved. Brushing our teeth, putting on our shoes, driving our cars, walking up stairs: all of these are physical (or motor) habits, rooted in our bodies, that enable us to repeatedly and easily perform very complex tasks in order to get on in life.

There are mostly or purely mental tasks as well, such as solving basic math problems or reading a book. If I ask you what twenty minus seven is, how much effort does that cause you? The answer almost appears automatically, doesn’t it? That “automatically” is a groove in your mind that takes your brain very little energy and shortcuts you to the answer you need. The act of reading is the same sort of thing but on an even larger scale—the habits we’ve acquired while setting our eyes on a collection of squiggles organized in a certain way is astounding when you stop to think about it.

Habits help us orient ourselves in the world and get along in it with greater effectiveness than if every single thing were a pure exercise of conscious will. How exhausting would our day be if everything we did was new? Remember the last time you started a new job? Utterly exhausting! So this fact about our nature, how we’re made by God, is for our good.

HABITS ARE FORMED BY REPETITION AND REWARD

So how do habits form?

Partially by strong stimuli (experiencing a reward or pain) and partly by repetition. The greater the stimuli, the easier it is to form a habit. In response to a certain situation, we try an outcome by effort of conscious will. And how that goes ends up creating a groove in our minds and bodies. If it goes well, we are habituated toward repeating that behavior the next time we are confronted with that situation. And if it goes poorly, we tend to avoid that behavior. All of this happens automatically.

One thing to note here is that habits can sometimes become so ingrained so as to become increasingly difficult to escape. When they get really bad, we call them addictions. An addiction is a deep, deep groove created by an outsized reward from a particular behavior. It is said that a meth user becomes addicted from his very first dose, so unbelievably powerful is the chemical reward the body experiences. Alcoholism is the same species on a slightly smaller scale.

So habits are formed by intense stimuli.

And as anyone who has learned a sport recognizes, habits are also formed and deepened by repetition. Even if the first time you swung a bat at an incoming baseball didn’t go so well, over time you can get the hang of it. Our minds work the same way: you repeat mathematical operations or recite poetry enough times and your mind just falls into the groove. “For God so loved the world that…” (finish it for me!)

The reward of a good grade or a problem solved keeps you repeating that habit until it becomes a deep, well-worn groove.

HABITS DETERMINE THE TRAJECTORY OF OUR DESTINY

So let’s bring this back to our discussion of spiritual formation. We said last week that where we set our minds determines our destiny. Part of what we mean by that is with reference to habits. We are literally made up of what we repeatedly think, say, and do in response to certain situations. 

Said another way, the outcome of our lives are the result of what Eugene Peterson calls “a long obedience in the same direction.” When he uses that phrase, he’s talking about the work of the pastor in shepherding people day after day for many years toward the life of following Jesus. But it applies just as well to both our discussion of habits, and what our scripture is trying to teach us.

A long obedience to sinful behaviors will lead us toward a dark, lifeless place.

But a long obedience to the righteousness of Jesus by the power of the Spirit leads to a glorious eternally destiny, rich participation in a restored world, and true freedom in a life that never ends.

PRUNING HABITS OF MIND

So one more time from last week: where we set our minds, the patterns of teaching we allow to seep into our bones, the habits of mind that make up our normal days. These habits of mind must become the center of our efforts around spiritual formation.

When we say “habits of mind”, does that phrase make sense? Let me put a little more meat on the idea. A habit of mind is a place that your mind automatically goes during familiar situations that occur every day or at regular intervals.

Can you give me some examples?

How about the beginning of the day? Right after you wake up, where does your mind go? If you’ve managed to prune out distracting morning notifications like email or surfing Facebook first thing, you still probably have a habit of mind of where your thoughts go. Are you anticipating work? Does the weight of what you’re about to go do fill you with dread? Are you thinking about a person? Running mentally through your schedule?

How about at the very end of the day. Before you lay down in bed, after your teeth are brushed, what groove does your mind fall into?

How about Saturday morning? How about in your car? How about when you think of church?

Some of these habits of mind, these grooves we’ve developed, are good ones. But some of them are well-worn paths that are bringing us anxiety, or leading us toward brooding or nursing frustrations, or making us feel bad about ourselves, or leading us to fall into a well of hopelessness. Our God has something better for us. He wants to go with us into these well-worn habits of mind and to redirect them into more beautiful territory, territory where we habitually turn to him, to his life-giving presence, to the truth of how much we are loved and the truth of his sufficiency in every tough situation we face.

We aren’t going to master every part of this subject right away, but we’re going to take our first steps together toward pruning those habits of mind that are holding us back from going deeper into the good life of the kingdom. Perhaps take this as a place to start: what are some of the habits of mind that deflate or sidetrack or derail you? And what small steps can you take to direct your mind into a different groove when you encounter that situation?