Many of you have at least heard of Tony Dungy.
Now a speaker and writer, at one time he was an assistant football coach who had failed to convince any team to hire him as head coach. Even after 4 interviews, no one wanted Dungy because he had an unorthodox philosophy.
Finally, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who were so bad they were nicknamed “America’s doormat” hired Dungy as head coach. What did they have to lose right?
Immediately Dungy began to implement his philosophy.
He didn’t have a lot of fancy plays or trick moves. He did drills.
He drilled and drilled and drilled his players making small changes in the way they played; noticing the direction that your opponent’s foot was pointing told you one thing. If they lined up with their pads not perfectly square to the line, meant something else.
Dungy drilled and drilled until the players started responding to these cues naturally. No more deciding which direction to go. The players line up and the habit takes over noticing the cues and responding out of habit gained them precious milliseconds which, Dungy believed, would add up to winning games.
Dungey would soon become a successful NFL turn around coach known setting the record for the most consecutive appearances by a coach in post season play.
Dungy’s trick was really no trick at all,
he just understood the power of habits. You see, he took good players and drilled them until they no longer had to think about how to respond to the cures of the other players. They responded out of habit making them faster, more confident and, frankly better.
He moved control of the game from the decision making in the frontal cortex to a habit controlling in the Basal Ganglia. And it proved a winning habit.
In the last two weeks we have talked about good habits, weird habits, and bad habits.
last week we talked about how to install a good habit in our life. Identify the behavior we want, create a trigger, and a reward and repeat. And a habit is born. We didn't however address a problem that plagues many of us and that is bad habits.
the golden rule of habit change is that you can never extinguish a bad habit you can only change it. Like they say “it is like riding a bike. You never really forget how to ride a bike.” You can’t get rid of a habit, but you can change it.
I observed an interesting example of this with a lady in a previous church. She emigrated from Germany as a small child and learned English as a second language. Her parents only spoke German when they wanted to keep a secret from the kids. As she aged this woman started to experience dementia and eventually the habit of speaking German overcame the habit of speaking English. She spoke only German to the day she died. That habit was still there ingrained on her basil Ganglia from early childhood.
So, you see, you can’t really get rid of the habit even if you want to. But you can change it.
In simple terms the pigeon in the laboratory pecks at the red light and the food drops out. Change the color of the light and pretty quickly the bird modifies his or her behavior to peck on the yellow light.
The trigger is hunger, the reward is seed, but you can change the color of the button or the shape of the button and the habit is changed… not gone, just changed.
For a while last summer, I was a little like our friend from last week, Homer Simpson. I got in the habit of eating Casey’s chocolate chunk cookies. I mean like almost daily. They are good, but that is just a bad idea. I realized when I got in the car my brain expected a chocolate chip cookie. That was my trigger. The reward speaks for itself because chocolate chip cookies make me feel good.
I decided to change the behavior. I still had a desire when I got in the car, but instead of caving in to drive to Casey’s, I went down to the park and took a short walk as often as I could. It didn’t have to be long. But the sunshine and the fresh air made me feel good, almost as good as eating a chocolate chip cookie. I was able to change the3 habit and now I treat myself with a cookie about once a week.
You can actually use that on any habit you have from eating chocolate chip cookies to quitting drinking. A fascinating study was done in which 5 men who had been through rehab multiple times for alcoholism. Each had an electrical probe planted in the Basal Ganglia (remember that’s where habits live?). Immediately, they reported the craving for alcohol was gone. That was great, until they experienced stress. 4 out of the 5 went back to drinking because that was the only way they knew to deal with stress. Replacing the drinking with another activity any activity would have proven more successful.
You can’t get rid of a habit; you can only change it. Keep the trigger, keep the reward, and change the behavior for a new habit.
OK, now that helps with anything from chocolate cookies to cigarettes. But how does it help with a spiritual habit?
I find that spiritual habits are great replacements for less desirable habits.
I knew a youth who decided that every time he was tempted to go to a porn website, he would open his bible and read a psalm. It worked!
I know a youth who was a cutter. She vowed to call someone in the youth group whenever she felt the urge to cut. It wasn’t the perfect answer but talking to a friend who was also sometimes hurting made a big difference.
Þ Disciples ask Jesus to teach them to pray.
· Jesus replies with the Lord’s prayer we all know it, and I hope you use it frequently.
· Some complain that it is too rote… don’t think about it
· I challenge that -suggesting spiritual habits are useful
· Remember, habits are necessary for our brains saving energy.
· Habits are also necessary for out hearts providing the foundation upon which our spiritual lifes stand.
1. Seen people unresponsive nearing death and when we pray the lord’s prayer, their lips begin to move alone with us. The habit pays off.
2. Seen people who were in advanced stages of dementia… when I recite the 23rd Psalm they join me.
· Spiritual habits form an important foundation for us
1. Words we need when we don’t have othersThis week’s habit, prayer, is a great substitute for any number of things.
Get cut off in traffic? Pray.
Get a nuisance phone call? Pray.
Pull over to let a firetruck by? Pray for the family that might be having the worst day of their life.
Have a pain? Pray for someone whose pain never goes away.
Sit down to a meal and in addition to giving thanks for the food give thanks for the farmers, laborers, truckdrivers, factory workers, and grocers who helped get it to your table.
Do something hurtful to someone you love? Pray not only for forgiveness, but for God to use the pain and remorse you feel to make you more loving in the future.
Get the idea?
Anything in life can and should be a cue to pray.
Anything and everything should call you to a time of prayer,
long or short,
silent or out loud,
exuberantly exalting or quietly confessing.
That Is what Paul describes as “praying unceasingly.”
Brother Lawrence the author of “practice of the presence of God” wrote, “That we should establish ourselves in a sense of God’s presence, by continually conversing with him.”
Our prayer should be as close and as natural as breathing. Try this with me. Become aware of your breathing. Feel your lungs fill and empty, fill and empty. Notice of you are breathing deeply with your diaphragm or shallow. Is your breath fast or is it slow? Even or ragged. Quiet or wheezy.
Take a deep breath in. Hold it and release it.
Again
As you breathe out, “exhale your human spirit and inhale the spirit of God.”
Exhale your intentions and inhale God’s perfect will
Exhale your way, inhale God’s way.
Exhale your need to control and inhale your desire for God to make you whatever you can become
Exhale… inhale
Exhale, exhale, exhale, hold it, hold it, hold it. Do you need to breathe hold it?
From now on May your habit or prayer be as strong as you instinct to breathe. Inhale. Inhale.
AMEN
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