Happiness or Habit
A picture hanging on the wall caught my eyes and held me for a moment transfixed. A small boy, maybe just 3 or 4 years old was standing in front of an open tall door. The boy was outside in the daylight but the door opened on to a room full of darkness and shadows except for another door at the opposite end, which opened onto another dark room and then finally a third door through which the brightest light shone.
A man stood there holding a lantern in the air and the rays from that single light filled the room and made the path visible through the other two. Oh, if he could just be brave enough to make it through the dark rooms he wouldn’t be alone any more. He would live in the light with the kindly old man.
If only… I paused to stare at the picture because it made me think of all of us who are trapped by habits and lifestyles that sometimes seem OK but in the still small hours of the souls' night we know they are destroying us. Eating away at us on the inside. Leaving us empty and alone and feeling powerless to change.
Oh for the courage to make it through the dark rooms, the rooms of change, where we struggle to give up things that keep us away from the light and that kindly face. Things like the discouragement of those who wish to keep us the same, and most of all our own fear of succeeding, or of failing and our desire to stay the same.
Sometimes I feel like giving up the hope of being different, of living a better life. Sometimes it would be so easy not to try, not to have to fight myself to overcome old bad habits. But I want so much to sit in the bright room on the other side of those doors.
I have found the secret to making it through the dark days; If I concentrate on the light and not on the dark, it all gets much easier. I make God my focus and then I carry on.
Why not try with me? Who knows maybe all of heaven is cheering us on?
“Therefore since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily hinders our progress. And let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from start to finish.”
Hebrews 12:1-2 (NLT)
“So then, since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe.
This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin.
So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most”
Hebrews 4:14-16 (NLT)