Kicking the Habit

I was reading through Don Millers “Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious thoughts on Christian Spirituality” when I came across the following statement:

The devil tries so hard to get Christians to be religious. If he can sink a man’s mind into habit, he will prevent his heart from engaging God.

I have enjoyed reading Don Miller because of his humor, his humility and his casual tone. And when I first read this quote, I loved it, so I did what I always do with quotes that I love in books, I broke out the highlighter.

Here’s what I love about the statement. I find that habits can distract us…because most of us are so ADD and nearsighted that we tend to focus on the means and not the end. So if Don is saying that Christians can be so focused on quiet times and prayer times and church services and community service (all great things) we can sort of miss the point. As good as these things are they are THE point is they are just a means to an end…a relationship with God. There really is no joy in doing these things, unless we do them out of our engagement with the heart of God... And I’m as guilty as the next guy of falling into the “missing-the-point” mindset of habits for habits sake.

But the more I think about it, the more I realize that habits are really the way that we do engage God. So I guess I’m disagreeing with Don. But I don’t so much mean habits in the abstract sense, like these disciplines or activities achieve some merit for us….I mean habits more in the relational sense…and relational habits allow us to engage God. Relationships require habits.

I think about the relational habits that allow me to connect with my wife. We tend to eat dinners together so that we can check up on the day. We like to watch Survivor & Dancing with the Stars together so that we can laugh and relax. We like to vacation together so that we can recharge our batteries. Without these habits and many others (including regular “I’m sorry”s and ‘You were right, I was wrongs”) our relationship breaks down.

In a similar way relational habits are necessary for us to walk in sync with God… relationally. We need to listen to him and talk to him…to understand his values and his view on things so that we can live as he lives…sort of like living in the light as he is in the light (1 John 1:5-7).

Relationships require loyalty: We get the sense from Scripture that God is regularly saying be as I am…not for us to earn his love…but to live in the realm of relationship with him. It is in the area of choices (or habits) that sin (or betrayal) and obedience (or loyalty) duke it out. In my habits I choose to betray or be loyal to my wife…similarly my habits display betrayal or loyalty to God…relationally (1 John 3:9). Now that is a habit worth being religious about.