The Creeping Influence of Bad Habits
(The following illustration has applicatoin for both "bad" habits and "good" habits alike. As such, this illustration will appear in the database twice, with alternative applications dealing with both types of habits.)
Bad habits can kind of creep up on you. You're fine. You're handling them. Until ... you're not.
Imagine that you have an ice cube sitting on the table in front of you. The room is cold and you can see your breath. It is currently twenty-five degrees. Ever so slowly, the room begins to heat up. Twenty-six degrees. Twenty-seven. Twenty-eight. The ice cube is still sitting on the table in front of you. Twenty-nine degrees. Thirty. Thirty-one. Still, nothing has happened. Then, thirty-two degrees. The ice begins to melt. A one-degree shift, seemingly no different from the temperature increases before it, has unlocked a huge change. [Effects] are often the result of many previous actions, which build up ... unleash[ing] a major change. This pattern shows up everywhere. Cancer spends 80 percent of its life undetectable, then takes over the body in months. Bamboo can barely be seen for the first five years as it builds extensive root systems underground before exploding ninety feet into the air within six weeks.
Bad habits are a lot like those stealthy bamboo shoots. They seem to be nothing to be worried about. They don't seem to be having any significant impact on your life or well being. Until one day, you can't keep them underground any longer. The negative impacts burst through the surface, and bam! Suddnely you have a 50 foot tall bamboo stalk casting shade over your entire existence.
Don't be duped. Those small, bad habits can turn into serious problems quickly. That is why we are cautioned by Scripture to take mastery over our attitudes and action before they take mastery over us.
"All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be dominated by anything" (1 Corinthians 6:12, ESV).
"Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up" (Galatians 6:7-9, ESV).
Honesty Is The Best Policy
When I was a small boy growing up in Mississippi, my Granny was often a source of wisdom, unconditional love, good cooking, and entertainment. I'll never forget a lesson she taught me by accident about honesty. We had stopped at a convenience store after church, where she intended to get a Sunday paper from the machine out front. She gave me a quarter and told me to run get two papers, one for her and one for my mother.
I got to the machine and saw that a Sunday paper was 25 cents, and I shouted to her as she sat in the car that I would need another quarter. Granny said, "No, baby, just put the quarter in the slot, open the door, and get two papers out of the machine." I must have looked puzzled because she repeated herself a little louder.
About that time a customer walked out of the store, so when I proceeded to explain that I couldn't get two papers out of the machine without putting in two quarters, she shushed me, got out of the car, and said, "Just get in the car." I climbed into the car and watched as she put the quarter into the slot, opened the door, and retrieved two newspapers.
As the metal door slammed shut and she began to walk away, she was suddenly stopped short by the strap of her big, black purse hanging on her arm. She had accidentally caught the purse in the paper machine. With the door closed, she was stuck.
After a frustrating moment of indecision, Granny fished around, produced a second quarter, and freed herself from captivity. It was all I could do to keep from laughing, but something told me to keep that lesson to myself.
The Bible teaches us that stealing is always wrong and that it is what we do in our private moments that define our character and prove our witness to those around us. Doing the right thing is not one option among others for the Christian, it is a mandate.
Even when the compromise seems small, even when it appears no one is looking or is likely to be harmed, our theft, our lie, our disregard for what is right has consequences.
“Whoever is simple, let him turn in here! And to him who lacks sense she says, 'Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.' But he does not know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol" (Proverbs 9:16-18, ESV).
Spilling Your Coffee
Imagine you’re holding a cup of coffee when someone bumps into you, causing you to spill what's in your cup.
You didn't spill tea. You didn't spill grape juice or soda. You spilled coffee because coffee is what was in your cup. If you’d had tea in your cup, it would have been tea that spilled out. The point is, whatever is inside your cup is what will spill out of your cup if bumped or shaken.
We are each a vessel, not unlike a cup. Looking from the outside, no one can know what we “contain.” But when events of life bump up against us or shake us up, whatever is inside will likely come spilling out.
So we must ask ourselves, “What’s in my cup?” Is it love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control? Or is it anger, bitterness, anxiety, impatience, mean-spiritedness, ill will, faithlessness, harshness, and lack of discipline?
We might present to the world that we are full of one thing when really we are full of another. It’s easy to fake it when nothing is bumping into us or shaking us up. But bring on a little trial, a little temptation, irritation, conflict, inconvenience, etc., and what's inside our heart of hearts will come spilling out.
So fill yourselves with the Fruits of the Spirit so that the goodness and light within you spills out onto others as a testimony of the transformative power of Christ in your life.