The Path of Complacency

And my slide from 

So, this is what happens.

Jeff Goins has this #my500words challenge and I thought it would be a fun experiment to try. I was already doing better on my daily Bible study AND reading more than ever before (also participating in Jon Acuff’s “Empty Shelf Challenge”) so adding a bit of writing sounded like a fine idea.

It was going really well. I was writing every day, I had only missed one day and (per Jeff’s instructions at the outset) had not gone back or tried to double-up the next day. Everything was running smoothly.

My last post was five days ago and I don’t have an excuse.

And this is what happens on so many of my endeavors. I get excited about something new and regardless of the scale of it (from solving a problem at work to learning a new language) I dive head-first into the problem, researching and hypothesizing about the solution. I learn everything I can about the subject matter and strive to become an overnight expert in that field.

Then, my study begins to slow down. I’m reading less and less about it. I’m not watching YouTube videos about how to do this thing, I’m watching GoPro helmet camera footage. At this point, I can feel my interest slipping. Occasionally, I can rally and get back to the task. Other times, it continues to slip until I give up on the project and start looking for the next thing to be excited about. It’s a pattern that I’ve been trying to fight off for years.

There are interests in my life that I do not waiver in — my wife and daughters are never something that I loose interest in. I would say that my relationship with God would be on the no-waiver list, but my commitment to that relationship actually waivers quite a bit. I never fully lose interest in Christ or anything like that, but I’m not always as aggressive in my pursuit of Him as I’d like to be.

Jeremiah 10:21 (ESV) is speaking of shepherds, but I think this applies to how I feel:

“For the shepherds are stupid and do not inquire of the Lord; therefore they have not prospered, and all their flock is scattered.”

I know that God has given me the spirit that I have — one of big ideas and lofty goals. He’s also given me a strong work ethic (also a byproduct of growing up on a farm) to actively pursue these adventures that I go on. Yet, it’s like my default is laziness or complacency.

Craig Groeschel, the Senior Pastor for LifeChurch.tv, talks about discipline as sort of the antidote to our inherent laziness. In his own life, he mentions the importance of flossing his teeth. See, by flossing his teeth, he is forcing himself to do something that he doesn’t really want to do but knows it is beneficial. This seems to be the lynchpin that holds so many things together. If he stops flossing, his Bible study begins to slip, he begins eating less-healthy, his attitude towards other people changes. By doing the thing that he knows is beneficial and doesn’t want to do, he is building within himself a culture of doing what’s best, not what is convenient.

This is what I’d like to develop in 2014. I picked a word for the year earlier, BRAVE, but I think my word may change to DISCIPLINE. I think that if I could figure that one out, 2014 would look far different than it would on this complacent path. I guess we’ll see.

In the meantime, I’m going to go floss.