Old Habits Die Hard

Where is the butter knife? I wondered.  Like all of us, I am a creature of habit. I have my morning routine where certain items make me happy and get me going, namingly my flavored coffee, quirky pottery and my wooden butter knife.  

"Ah" I remembered.  It's in the dishwasher with the other dirty dishes.  So, when I reached for the dinner knife, I reasoned: "this isn't so bad. I'll try it."

Then my eyes looked up.  I realized that many times new experiences come when the old is finally relinquished.  

I think that is the season I'm in.  It's one where not only am I having to let go of a lot of things, but also, my old habits are crashing and burning like never before.  Moreover, I'm gaining an understanding of how repetitive we, by nature, are and how sometimes, it is by forceful determination that an old habit must be thrown out the door.

The Lord has demonstrated this for me through pottery making.  As it turns out, also in this season, I've rekinded my love of making ceramic bowls and what nots.  It really happened by a spoof, actually.  

I was sitting in an orientation and the speaker mentioned an independent bookstrore that participates in a fundraiser by making and selling ceremic bowls then using the proceeds to benefit the local food pantry.  I was intrigued.  I have always loved pottery and took two semesters in ceramics in college.  But that was many moons ago, a.k.a. fourteen years ago.  

So, one day, I found myself downtown and decided to stop by to offer my meek, but "hey, it's something" services.  To my surprise, she took me on.

After such a long period of time of completely nothing, I couldn't believe it when I sat at the wheel and my hands instantly went to the place where I was taught.  I didn't think "now where do I put my hands?"  It wasn't anything like that.  In fact, I wasn't even watching my hands because I was talking!  I had just rested my hands on the bowl as it spun on the wheel.  When the conversation ended, I got set and then did a double take.  My hands were in the right position!  This realization started me on a course of examining muscle memory.  Then, my course extended to examining muscle memory in regards to how we think.  

The first series of my bowls.

Our thinking develops right from the womb.  There are countless studies proving that so much is determined at such young ages.  Then in our adulthood, when we face difficulties, we have to do this huge mind trek back to our earlier days gruesomely hunting down a particular line of thinking that has now postured itself into our lives and is wrecking much!  Ugh. What a laborious journey it can be.  But, ultimately, it's a worthy one for it's like spring cleaning... it's time to get rid of the old and clean things up a bit.  The new has come.

In addition, when it comes to our muscle memory and thinking the same (usually poor) things over and over again, we must take a radical stance and say: 

"NO MORE." 

We must recognize the thinking for what it is, then respond and refuse to accept it, then replace it with the truth.  

Unfortunately, musle memory regenerates itself.  Sometimes, its life cycle will eventually pitter out, other times, it comes back in full force.  The battle can be short lived, or it can be an ongoing struggle, of which, many of us find ourselves.  The important part is to avoid getting yourself tangled up into it.  This is also hard because sneak attacks can happen quite often, just like "a lion on a cheetah," as an old friend used to say.  But, thankfully, as we grow and chip away at the journey, it can become more and more manageable.  

However, (and thankful so!), there is One above who has given us access to renew our mind by the transforming power of His word.  In addition, our Lord took action.  His Son journeyed to earth, and battled mind games with the evil one probably more so than we realize, for He has power to see into the Spiritual realms far beyond we will ever be able to.

But in His journey, He gave us the ability to having "living water" (John 4:10) pour into our empty cisterns and renew our broken vessels.  By His Spirit, we are able to be comforted and assured of His love for us, though we are such a misfit of people.  

My bowl evolution for the past two 

months.  One of the first ones is on the left, to one of the more recent ones on the right.  I also "graduated" myself from ceramics low fire clay to 112 hire fire clay(: 

So, if today, your old habits are in the way, it might be time to allow them to crash and burn.  It might be time to recognize the muscle memory that is causing you havoc and respond to it by refusing to believe the trash and replacing it with truth. Then look ahead for the new to come and all the refreshment it entails.  

My most proud bowl endeavor.

"Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind," (Romans 12:2, NIV).

"Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst.  Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life," (John 4:13-14, NIV).

"Therefore we do not lose heart.  Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.  For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.  So fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.  For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal," (2 Corinthians 4: 16-18 NIV).