Growing Pains in My Christian Calling

This is my 39^th blog in 57 business days. It’s harder to come up with compelling topics than it was 30 days ago! I think I’ve written some pretty good blogs, and I’ve written some mediocre ones. I’ve also written some that prompted a slight cringe as I hit the Publish button.

Some days, I’ve had plenty of time to write. Other days, my schedule was too full of important other tasks to really focus well on my blogging. And occasionally, an already-full workday got shortened even more by normal but unexpected events.

However, I’ve stuck with this project called Challenge 44, during which I’m writing 44 blogs in 90 business days. During the first 30 business days, I wrote a blog every day, in 4 hours or less. My goal during those first 30 days was to make just one improvement in writing the next blog.

Now, near the end of the second 30 business days, I’m writing a blog every three days, spending no more than 6 hours on each blog. My biggest challenge during the second 30 days, with 2 additional hours to write each blog, is to resist the temptation to write a longer blog instead of a better blog.

In the future, during the third 30 days, I plan to write just one blog every 7 days. And again, my goal will be to resist my tendency to write longer blogs, but instead to write better blogs.

I’ve really struggled with writing shorter blogs. I’m a teacher at heart. My desire is to cover a topic comprehensively. But when I do that, I don’t become a better writer.

Sigh.

My habit of defaulting to quantity over quality grates on my nerves. And life’s unexpected interruptions—important though they may be—frustrate my focus. It all gets discouraging, especially during the middle part of a long and difficult project.

But I recently started one new habit that helps reset my brain. Immediately before I start my daily blogging, I treat myself by learning something new. Most of the time, my “learning candy” for the day is watching all or part of an inspiring instructional video. Yeah, I know that’s geeky, and it certainly isn’t everyone’s idea of a treat. But learning is my fun time, my amusement park. Learning lifts my spirits, opens my imagination, and fuels my hope.

For me, my daily time of learning is an example of the importance of habits in Christian calling.

The Importance of Habits in Christian Life and Calling

We’re accustomed to thinking of habits as mindless tasks that help us to focus our time and energy on our most important tasks. For example, instead of re-inventing my morning routine each day, habit kicks in, and I can think of more important things.

But habits are much more than repetitively mundane chores that free our brains for better things. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Sow an act, and you reap a habit. Sow a habit, and you reap a character. Sow a character, and you reap a destiny.”

God Himself works through the right kinds of habits, done well, over long periods of time, to transform us, so that we become who He created us to be and do what He created us to do.

In our Christian calling, inspiration gets us started, but habits keep us going.

Even our Lord Jesus Christ habitually prayed, worshipped, and served. Our Father in heaven designed our brains with the ability to harness the power of habits for transforming our minds:

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12:2)

A Moment of Transparency and a Personal Request

Okay, here’s a moment of transparency on my part. I’m not happy with today’s blog. But I’m very happy with what I learned while writing it.

When I started writing this blog three days ago, my fingers flew over my computer’s keyboard, typing the many ideas I had about habits. How important they are to Christian life and calling. How much we depend upon them. How God works through them. The brain science of forming new habits. How to discern which new habits God wants you to start for your Christian calling. What the so-called habit loop is and how it works. How to use the habit loop to start a new habit. How to make new habits stick over the long haul. And a closing inspirational story or two about how God worked through habits for personal blessings and Kingdom impact.

But I kept writing, trying to push through all of the subtopics. I kept getting further and further behind with my publication deadline. I grew less and less satisfied with the entire blog. And it was dry writing. Oh, yes. Dry as skeletal bones in a desert. I had packed the blog with loads of information. But I ran out of time. I didn't have time to craft the stories, inspirational encouragement, and other elements that are so crucial for writing transformational content. Ugh.

And now, today, right now, it’s time to publish this blog. But it would have been just a long, boring, incomplete summary of assorted subtopics about habits. If someone else had published it on the Internet, I wouldn't even have read it myself!

So instead of publishing that blog, I decided to start over. I decided not to just grit my teeth and throw a bunch of information at you, which is my natural tendency as a teacher. Instead, I decided to learn. To learn! Which I love to do anyway! And I decided to share my Christian-calling struggles with you. That's why you're now reading this more interesting—and more helpful—blog instead of the one I almost published.

And glory be!

In the midst of my struggle, God planted in my mind a new habit that will improve my writing, for my satisfaction and your benefit. Imagine that. Even as I'm writing a blog about habits for Christian calling, God prompts me to start a new habit for my own Christian calling! Ah, yes, God has a wonderful sense of humor!

You’ll have to read my next blog to find out what new writing habit God prompted me to start, and how that applies to your own Christian calling. But I believe you’ll be pleased with the results. And I’m praying that God will continue to speak to you through my own Christian calling, as I write, write, write, and write!

Will you come back and continue to grow with me?

Click to go to the next blog: 18 Steps to Start and Stick a New Habit

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