Creatures of Habit

Ephesians 4:22-24
You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.


I’m a creature of habit. I enjoy routine. It’s comfortable. It’s stable. It makes the spontaneous events that happen even more fun. I celebrate my Sabbath on Fridays, and there are two things that MUST happen on Friday mornings: isolation and routine. I start my day around 9:30 or so, waking up slowly and on my OWN terms for once. I call my puppy over and he hops into bed and snuggles with me for awhile. When I feel awake enough to climb out of the covers, I go get the coffee started. As it brews, I fire up my computer and bring up Hulu. For the next 2.5 hours, I watch all the NBC Thursday night comedies, drink coffee, and eat fruit. Then, when I’m all finished with my shows, I head to Subway for an oven-roasted chicken foot-long sub. Every. Single. Friday. If it doesn’t happen, it’s almost guaranteed that I will be grumpy and intolerable to be around by the end of the following week.


I have a routine. I enjoy it, and to a certain extent, I NEED it. It’s engrained in me. It’s a part of the rhythm of my life.


Our lives are full of habits. They can be either good or bad, but either way, we usually don’t think about them. Some of these habits can actually enable us to perform very complex, in-depth tasks without thinking extensively about it. Driving, for example, is an incredibly complex activity that, when you first start driving, takes a ton of stressful attention and awareness. However, after we’ve been driving for a few years, it becomes second nature and we go through the processes without REALLY thinking about it.


It is important that we realize that our sinfulness is not just an isolated event here or there, but it is a condition that pervades our lives. It is a habitual thought process that influences our understanding of the world, and the way we understand the world influences how we conduct ourselves as we live in this world.


We can have habits that either please or displease God. The word “habit” is derived from the Latin word habitus. A priest wears a habitus, which is a piece of clothing that represents a commitment to a holy life. In the same way, in Ephesians, we are called to “put off our old self” and to “put on the new self.”


We naturally acquire bad habits. In the next chapter of Ephesians, Paul specifically lists a few of those bad habits. Obscene language. Foolish talk. Dirty jokes. Bitterness. Quarrels. We really don’t even think about that stuff sometimes, do we? Our thinking about God and his demand for holiness has gotten warped and twisted to the point where we aren’t even convicted by the trash that we spew out of our mouths every day. Our hearts are hardened because of our ignorance to the point that we lose all sensitivity and “indulge in every kind of impurity.”


In the same way that Paul directs us in Romans to “no longer conform to the patterns of this world.” But instead to “be transformed by the renewing of our minds,” he tells us in Ephesians to “put off the old self” and “be made new in the attitudes of our minds; and to put on the new self., created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” This is a direct call to action. It requires us to personally TAKE OFF the old. We have to dig out our bad habits at the root. Clean house. We can’t live like we used to. But it doesn’t stop there. There’s another direct call to action: We also have to personally replace what we have gotten rid of and put on the new. Paul goes into depth in Colossians 3 with a list of what “clothes” we are supposed to put on. Compassion. Kindness. Gentleness. Patience. Self-control. Forgiveness. Love.


How are you actively taking off the old? What are you doing to put on the new? This isn’t something that anyone else is going to do for you. It starts internally, with the renewing of your mind, and once you have been mentally renewed, that can only affect your outward actions. Don’t sit around waiting to change. Change your clothes.

In Many Cases, Confinement and Constraint is Actually a Means to Liberation.

Guilt, Grace, Gratitude.  Growing up in the Reformed denomination, I have heard this succession of ideas for many, many years.  I agreed with the concept of it all.  After all, it’s a pretty logical, natural progression.  The book of Romans pretty much follows the same outline.  We do stupid things, we have a God who loves us anyway, and because of that love, we want to show our appreciation to that God.  That makes sense.  I like that idea.

However, even if I AGREED with the idea and I LIKED the idea and it made SENSE, I don’t think I completely understood the WHOLE equation because I hadn’t fully EXPERIENCED the whole equation (and I probably still don’t understand it completely, but whatever).

I DEFINITELY DEFINITELY DEFINITELY DEFINITELY understood the “guilt” part.  Oh buddy, do I ever understand my guilt.  One does not have to convince me of the fact that I am messed up, screwed up, and overall a straight up sinful person.  My life is so full of huge, dumb, life-altering mistakes that I still get nervous wondering if I am cursed to a lifetime of moronitude.  So, yes. Check the box.  Josh is a SINNER.

You know when you studied Native American culture in history class and you learned about the ladies grinding up corn with a big rock?  Okay, think back to that and picture them crushing and grinding and pulverizing that corn between two rocks.  Okay, that is how I feel that God has been driving His grace into my heart.  Just crushing and grinding that grace right into my heart.  It hasn’t been an easy or particularly pretty process.  There has definitely been some pulverizing.  But in the end, you end up with some awesome cornmeal that you can make delicious cornbread muffins out of and it’s all worth it.  I love cornbread.

This brings us to gratitude.  I truly believe this is not a naturally occurring part of the process.  Guilt is pretty easy.  Grace is a pretty crazy concept, but it’s relatively easy to swallow.  Who wouldn’t want to believe that they are loved no matter how badly they mess up or how big of a failure they are?  But GRATITUDE?  Yeesh.  You mean I am supposed to stop doing the things that I like to do?  I thought you said that this gift of grace is FREE OF CHARGE!

Well here’s the crazy part.  It ISSSS free of charge.  You didn’t earn it.  You can’t earn it.  Don’t even try to think that you’ve earned it or can earn it because you’re going to fail.  Badly.  Often. Miserably.

However, I am beginning to find that when I realize how utterly incapable of earning that gift I am, I begin to DESIRE to be obedient.  I want to change who I am and what I do.  After all, didn’t Jesus do that for me in an even BIGGER way when he came to Earth in the form of man, leaving behind his pretty awesome living situation with God the Father?  Yeah, maybe I can give a little bit of myself out of appreciation.  In 2 Corinthians 5:14-15,  we read that the love of Christ “constrains” us to live for Him.  Once I realize how Jesus changed himself for me and gave himself for me, I’m not so afraid of giving up my freedom, and therefore finding my freedom in Him (thanks to Tim Keller for putting that into better words than I could have).

It’s not a switch that gets flipped and now I behave and never want to do stupid things.  However, it is a pretty RADICAL change, at least that’s what I feel it has been in my own life.  Awesome.  Thank you Jesus.  Thank you for rescuing me from my own stupidity.  Thank you for redeeming me of my depression.  Thank you for giving me a gift so good that I willingly constrain myself to life of obedience and am therefore made free.

From the lips of children and infants, You have ordained praise.

For the past couple months, I have been discussing American Reformed's liturgy on Sunday mornings with our church's 2nd-5th graders.  Every week, during our church worship service, we go through a communal liturgy as a congregation.  There are four parts to this liturgy: Call to Worship, Prayer of Confession, Words of Assurance, and Instructions for Living.  As the children studied each part and why we do them, I had them write their own liturgies.  On May 1, these 2nd-5th graders will be leading the congregation as "liturgists," using the very same liturgies that they have written themselves.  I have been SO blessed by their beautiful words of TRUTH.  I wanted to share them, so that you too could be blessed by these young Christ-followers.  These words and scripture selections are 100% the work of the children.  Here is the first draft of their liturgy:

CALL TO WORSHIP

Psalm 146:1-2

Leader: “Praise the Lord!  Praise the Lord, my soul!  I will praise the Lord all my life.  I will sing praise to God for as long as I live!”

People: You are the only god worthy of worship.  We love you very much.  Come and worship, people of God.  Come and praise the Lord.  For God loves us and made us.  He is our ruler, helper, and healer.  God, you deserve our praise!

CONFESSION

(Silence)

People: We confess that we sin, O God and confess we haven’t listened to you.  We love you with all of our hearts and all our soul.  You do great things for us and we don’t see that.  Please forgive us.  We need you to help us in life.  You are amazing.  We thank you for being our God and dying for us.  Please show mercy to us.

WORDS OF ASSURANCE

Leader: Jesus Calms the Storm – Luke 8:22-25

 One day Jesus said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side of the lake.” So they got into a boat and set out. As they sailed, he fell asleep. A squall came down on the lake, so that the boat was being swamped, and they were in great danger.  The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we’re going to drown!”

He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm. “Where is your faith?” he asked his disciples.

In fear and amazement they asked one another, “Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him.”

Jesus assured his disciples that they would be okay during the storm.  He told them he would calm the storm.  This helps us know we can trust in Jesus to forgive our sins.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR LIVING

Leader: God tells us to take his advice and love him with all our hearts.  Follow the 10 commandments.  Be joyful always, pray at all times, be thankful in all circumstances.  This is what God wants from you in your life in union with Christ Jesus.