Grab His Hand
Can we really change?
I ask myself the question over and over. Some days it seems possible and others it appears to be the most impossible thing of all time. Can I actually change my habits? Those creature comforts I love so much? It’s easier to not change, and it is definitely more convenient to not change because it requires no extra work or effort from me, regardless of the destruction or devastation of my current habits.
Most of the time I don’t believe in my ability to change. I revert back to my comfortable, easy, destructive habits purely because I haven’t tried long enough to learn a new habit.
I remember someone once giving this beautiful image describing how our brains form new habits. Imagine your brain is like a forrest. You start walking down one path and you have to clear grass and bush to be able to walk down that way. Then you do it again, over that same area. With enough repitition, a newly cleared path begins to emerge where there wasn’t one before. However, the reality in clearing new paths is this: It’s so much easier to walk down the existing path rather than creating a new one. So we keep trudging down the same old trail, regardless of whether it leads you to devastation. It’s simply easier, isn’t it?
Changing our habits is changing the pathways in our brains. It’s fighting through bush, tall grass, and spiderwebs to clear a new path to life and joy. This is hard though and I don’t have a lot of faith in my ability or capacity to do it. I am used to walking down the paths I have carved out for myself. What’s worse is that I am used to walking down these lonely paths alone.
But Someone does have faith in our ability and capacity to change. There is Someone who wants to walk with us. We see it all throughout the Bible. God is a God of change and He believes deeply in our capacity to become new creations, full of life. He did all that was necessary to give us the power we need to be able to change. He died and rose again, giving us resurrection over death!
He is also the Way we can follow. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life as the John 14:6 tells us. The Spirit is our guide to follow the Way.
Change cannot happen by itself. I need to act while realising that God already has everything ready to make it possible for me to do it. I need to choose to let things go, to forgive, to have hope and faith, to do the work, to trust the Way, to follow His lead, to hold His hand. Gripping tightly to the Holy Spirit as our guide through the forest and helping us establish new ways will transform our lives.