Wow!
What a powerful sermon! Bible study! Conference!
Simply life-changing!
Really? I mean REALLY?
Give me a couple months and see how "simply
life-changing!" it really was.
What am I saying?! Months? Let's see if my "life-change" makes it through to the end of the week!
Why? Why does this happen? I sincerely WANT to change. I don't want to stay here, where I am. God wants to take me somewhere better. For His glory.
I think maybe I've started to finally figure out why ...
I will only see lasting change when my FOUNDATION has shifted. When I've had a change at the HEART level. When I really BELIEVE differently.
That word ... "believe" ... I do not think it means what we think it means.
A dear friend calls it "The Intellectual Disconnect". She writes "there's almost an intellectual disconnect between the church language and the real life language. This enables us to hear the stirring word of God preached, but we funnel that into our church box, agree, and feel comfortable cuz it lines with all the theology in our church box. But the real life box is what matters. thats what we really believe. Thats the language we really talk in. Thats our real life. To change, stuff has to change our real life box. It has to start by getting in our real life box."
Consider this non-churchy example:
A medical doctor "believes" that smoking is bad for a person's health. He knows the medical data. He counsels his patients to stop smoking. But he himself still smokes. He intellectually agrees. Intellectual assent. Intellectual disconnect.
So how do I get there? Into my real-life box? Well ... that's another post :) The Lost Art of Reflection.
But once in that real-life box, we face yet another barrier to true life-change. The curse of "Do More, Try Harder".
Consider another non-churchy example:
New Year's resolutions are all about me "believing" that I need to lose weight, eat healthier, exercise more, etc. Intellectually I know these goals are good things. And one day these goals get into my real life-box. But then it all comes down to willpower. About me committing to do more and try harder.
And this is my first impulse in how to grow in godliness. Do more, try harder. When what I really need is heart surgery. And only God can perform that.
So how does that happen? Well ... that's yet another post :) Four-part Heart Surgery story.
A dear friend calls it "The Intellectual Disconnect". She writes "there's almost an intellectual disconnect between the church language and the real life language. This enables us to hear the stirring word of God preached, but we funnel that into our church box, agree, and feel comfortable cuz it lines with all the theology in our church box. But the real life box is what matters. thats what we really believe. Thats the language we really talk in. Thats our real life. To change, stuff has to change our real life box. It has to start by getting in our real life box."
Consider this non-churchy example:
A medical doctor "believes" that smoking is bad for a person's health. He knows the medical data. He counsels his patients to stop smoking. But he himself still smokes. He intellectually agrees. Intellectual assent. Intellectual disconnect.
So how do I get there? Into my real-life box? Well ... that's another post :) The Lost Art of Reflection.
But once in that real-life box, we face yet another barrier to true life-change. The curse of "Do More, Try Harder".
Consider another non-churchy example:
New Year's resolutions are all about me "believing" that I need to lose weight, eat healthier, exercise more, etc. Intellectually I know these goals are good things. And one day these goals get into my real life-box. But then it all comes down to willpower. About me committing to do more and try harder.
And this is my first impulse in how to grow in godliness. Do more, try harder. When what I really need is heart surgery. And only God can perform that.
So how does that happen? Well ... that's yet another post :) Four-part Heart Surgery story.
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