One of the biggest difficulties in the spiritual life is inconsistency. We go through periods of zeal (often after reading the Scriptures or the lives of the saints), where we want to change our lives dramatically all of a sudden, to turn our hearts to God and seek Him. Later, the zeal fades and we stumble more. A bit later, it returns again. And so we find ourselves caught in the constant ebb and flow of the moment and we make no real progress towards Christ. The bad habits we have built over years remain and we make only slight progress in developing good habits.If we want to address this, if we want to be cured, to allow the grace of God to penetrate our hearts and transfigure us, I think it's important that we begin to take a long view of things, rather than expecting instant change. There are some saints, especially martyrs, whose lives changed dramatically in an instant. But even for most of the martyrs, they were prepared for martyrdom by long years of patient, steady progress, seeking God. In the Gospels, Christ doesn't tell us "Knock once and the door will be opened" or "Ask once and you will receive," but rather "Keep on knocking" and "Keep on asking."
St. Paul also talks about this when he points to the examples of the Old Testament saints and then says, "Therefore, let us run with endurance the race set before us, looking to Jesus." (Heb 12:1).
We must, then, make the effort daily to make slow and steady progress, asking God's help. If we don't pray regularly, then we should start simply and say a few prayers, as regularly as possible. If we're too greedy with our money and don't help others, we should begin by giving away a little more than usual, and then increase it. If we're too addicted to food, we can begin by avoiding going back for seconds, or snacking. If we have a bad temper, we can try just once to give a gentle answer. If we're lazy, we can try to build a habit of doing just a little bit more around the house or at work. If we're self centered, we can begin to try, even once in a while, to ask the people around us how they're doing and really listen to what they say.
All of this is important because it shows us what our salvation looks like. We believe that everything that is true about God by nature becomes true of us by grace. The grace of God is transformative. That means that God doesn't care as much about what we do (single actions) but more about who we are and who we become. And we are what we continually do.
What are your thoughts on habit?
