Getting Ready for Rough

It’s time for some New Year’s Resolutions. But first a contemplation of the Lilliputians. Remember how small they were? Remember how Gulliver really didn’t have to worry about them, so he lay down for a nap, and when he awoke he was tied down by hundreds of small threads that would have been inconsequential one by one. However, with thousands of threads holding down every part of his body the restraining force was more than he could resist.

Often our resolutions fail, not for lack of desire on our part, but for the unexpected resistance from so many angles! Jesus said that before we decide to follow Him, we should count the cost. Maybe that is still true after we have been following Him for many years. Maybe we have to count the cost every time His Spirit prompts us to change a behavior.

Are we ready for the friends who will sigh and ask us to change back? Or for those who will angrily demand that we change back? Or for our own feelings of withdrawal? Or for the hollowness we feel after we have said goodbye to whatever attachment had become so dear to us?

Every new behavior requires some time to establish. The same is true of uprooting a behavior. In fact, uprooting may be harder than planting. Here’s just one “for instance”: There are foods I am dismissing from my diet, but Lilliputian resistance fights against it: social settings where those foods are present, my own appetite, old habits, restaurant menus, how I like to fill small chunks of time, how I like to fill small corners of my belly, my old negative images of “vegans”, and much more.

Can I foresee all the pressure I may receive—pressure to change back? Probably not. But the more I identify, the better prepared I will be to say, “Ah! Another Lilliputian, I see. I was expecting this one.” Then I can break that one little thread before I get held down by the overwhelming many.

How many Lilliputian threads can you identify that are currently holding you to the habit you are trying to change? Can you get ready for the rough times of snapping each thread? It does get easier as you go.