BUT...THAT'S HOW I'VE ALWAYS DONE IT!

Here we are, just a few days into the new year and already you can hear the shattering sound of broken New Years Resolutions.  Not you or me though, we're different, this year we are going to make some changes!  We will be thinner, healthier, make more money, spend more time in spiritual pursuits and read more books.  What's the plan you ask?  We don't need no stinking plan!  We're just going to do it!!  Yeah... that's what happened.

   

      It often amazes me how often people express dissatisfaction with the status quo yet are unwilling to do anything differently to make even simple changes.  We are caught up in traditions and methods because, well we may not even know why.  

Scientists placed 5 monkeys in a cage with a staircase and a banana hanging on a string above the staircase.  Every time a monkey went up the stairs to get the banana, the other 4 were sprayed down with icy water. The monkeys did not like being sprayed down with icy water.  It did not take long for the monkeys to realize the cause of the icy water was someone going up the stairs.  Once the monkeys realized this, they would attack any monkey who went up the stairs. Soon the monkeys avoided the stairs and everyone got along.  After a few days, one monkey was replaced.  When the new monkey went up the stairs, the 4 veteran monkeys attacked him and prevented him from going up, even though the scientists did not spray the monkeys with water.  One by one the monkeys were replaced over the course of days and weeks.  Eventually 5 monkeys who had never been sprayed with water guarded the stairs, never allowing any other monkey to go up. 

 5 monkeys who will never go up a staircase to get a banana nor will they ever allow another monkey to go up a staircase to get a banana because that's just the way it's always been.  Are we any better than those monkeys when it comes to making changes in our lives?  Are we caught in useless traditions and methods that may have had a purpose at some time in the distant past because, "that's how I've always done it"?  Are we failing to reach goals because we are failing to plan, to take chances, to step outside of "normal"?

    I am not talking about Biblical truth, that never changes and this is not a call to conform Biblical standards to cultural norms.  What I am saying is we need to look at our methodology.  If we do not make changes, nothing can change. 

     If you are a goal setter or a resolution maker, how many of last years goals or resolutions did you actually accomplish in the past year?  What did you do differently to achieve those goals?  Our approach to frustration with the status quo cannot be doing everything the way we have always done it.  

    This also translates to the church. If the church is called to affect the culture, yet the culture seems to have infected the church, what are we willing to do differently in practice?  We have to be able to calibrate our methods without compromising holiness.  

I know why I am not losing weight, I know why I am not healthier this year than I was last year, I know why I failed to meet my reading goal from last year and I know why I am dissatisfied with my spiritual life.  It is because I did not make the necessary changes, take the necessary risks or get over my, "but... that's how I've always done it attitude."  I also know that the church will continue to descend into irrelevancy in our culture if we do not make some changes and take some risks.  

    Don't be like a monkey who protects a staircase because that is how it's always been done.  Learn why we do things, evaluate what we do on it's merits and make the necessary changes to see the necessary changes.  Do not continue to punch yourself in the head and wonder why you have an headache.  Pursue God, get His plan and change your world!

Now, go live as Christ.... and give the devil hell!