Why Do We Do That?

When things are routine for us, we have so-called ruts we get into and stay in as we go about our daily lives and living. But when that routine is disrupted, we many times have to get out of those ruts and plow new ground. It’s uncomfortable for us, but sometimes is productive as we try new things and gain new appreciation for others.

Then when the routine returns, we quickly go back into the ruts we’ve plowed long ago. For some reason we become comfortable in them, even if they aren’t best for us. We tend to gravitate back to them, abandoning the newly plowed ground that provided some refreshing change and insight to life and living.

Now, why do you suppose that would be? Why would we prefer the old, established way to the newer, more exciting way? Why would we prefer the familiar to the new? Why would we continue to put up with the same old habits and ways when we’ve already had a taste of doing things differently?

I’m not saying here that everything we do by force of habit is bad. Many of those habitual things are that way because they are good for us and help us in life. But there are some that we could just as easily do without, or replace with something that is markedly better for us. Yet we greatly resist, at times, those changes.

Paul the Apostle said once, “For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate.”

Even though Paul was talking about the law of sin and his propensity to succumb to its temptation, I think the principle applies. It seems that this practice of doing what we really don’t want to do may well be something that infects humanity in many cultures over many times and epochs.

As I get back into the groove (rut) of having a job and earning a living, I find that I also fall back into the old habits and thoughts that accompany that way of life. I find that I am less compassionate toward those who are homeless or in other dire straits. I find that I become more judgmental toward others, and that I feel somehow superior to them. I find that my communication with those I love becomes more strained as I go back into myself in a kind of protective mode.

Those are the kinds of things I do not want to do, and struggle with even now. I want to retain the lessons I’ve learned over the past few months and allow them to remake me into someone who is more like the God I proclaim to serve. How can I do anything else?