Belief Before Behavior
- Bailee Chavez
- Aug 27, 2023
- 6 min read
Welcome to my first blog post of my junior year of college! I am beginning to craft this post on Friday evening, and I can’t believe I have finished up my first week back already. I felt like I got right back into the swing of things like I never left. And I truly can’t believe I am only a week out from what used to be summer. I am going to start this blog with an excerpt of a devotional that I listened to this week. It’s so good! I’ll highlight my favorite parts!
Devotional
AWAKENING – Erasing Famines”
Recently I read about an experiment done by psychologist Jonathan Haidt. He came up with a fascinating hypothetical exercise, which went something like this:
Participants were handed a summary of a person’s life and asked to read it over.
Participants were then asked to imagine that the person was their daughter. This is her unavoidable life story. She hasn’t been born yet, but she will be soon, and this is where her life is headed. Participants then had five minutes to edit her story. Eraser in hand, they could eliminate whatever they wanted out of her life.
The question for participants was: What do you erase first?
Most of us would instinctively and frantically begin to erase the learning disability and the car accident and the financial challenges. We love our children and would want them to live a life without those hardships, pains, and setbacks. We would all prefer our children’s lives be free from pain and anguish.
But ask yourself: Is that really what’s best?
Do we really think a privileged life of smooth sailing is going to make our kids happy?
What if you erase a difficult circumstance that will wake them up to prayer? What if you erase a hardship that’s going to show them how to be joyful in spite of any circumstance? What if you erase some pain and suffering that ends up being the catalyst God uses in their life to cause them to cry out to Him? What if you erase a difficult circumstance that wakes them up to God’s purpose for their lives?
It may sound harsh to say, but the number one contributor to spiritual growth is not sermons, books, or small groups; the number one contributor to spiritual growth is difficult circumstances. I can tell you this because of personal experience, reading spiritual-growth surveys, and my own anecdotal evidence after talking to thousand of people over the years. "AHA" moments come out of the suffering, setbacks, and challenges of life. Many people could point to those moments as their greatest moments of spiritual awakening.
* What times in your life have you experienced the most spiritual growth? Were they times of plenty, or were they the hard time? Is God trying to grow you right now through some difficult trial or circumstance?
2 Corinthians 7:10 ESV
For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.
Luke 15:14 ESV
And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need.
-------
Psychology Class
On Wednesday during the 2nd lecture of my psychology class we officially began going over course content, and I found myself amazed when the professor quite literally spoke on a topic that I had been wrestling with all summer. Furthermore, it took her about 3 minutes to sum up the conclusion that took me months to even begin to consider- let alone believe and accept.
She essentially said that at the heart of every human is the desire to be unconditionally loved.
From a psychological perspective, she referred to this concept as desiring unconditional positive regard.
She used the example of weight loss to back her claim.
Her words were the following:
“When I was obese and set the goal of weight loss and achieved it, I did feel intensely good about myself. And I should have. I worked really hard! But when people started treating me differently, I always wondered if it was about who I was as a person or because of this condition. If I hadn’t achieved that condition, would I still be loved by others, and would I still love myself?”
She went on to explain that, when setting goals for yourself, it is best to begin with accepting yourself first. This is because we all crave the foundational feeling of safety and of being “at home.”
She said that when you choose a goal and decide you are only going to be happy when/if you achieve that goal, that is in direct contradiction to your real desire in life- which is to be unconditionally loved.
This is similar to the psychological theory of attachment. To illustrate, imagine there is an infant who is securely attached to their parent. Because they know their parent won’t leave them, they don't just cling onto their parent all the time. Instead, they freely roam because they know they can always return to their homebase where they will be accepted and loved.
When humans have this sense of safety, they typically don’t just rest there. This safety net gives them a sense of energy to go and to achieve.
Of course, humans also want to believed in. Thus, it might not be beneficial for a parent to say they don’t care about how their children behave. We want someone to say, “I know you can go out there, and meet that goal.”
But that's a topic for a different day.
Beginning with acceptance of yourself, the succeeding steps to any change you desire will likely follow some sort of process.
To get a degree, you have to go through the process of assignments, exams, certifications, and tests.
To recover from a disorder, you have to go through the process of treatment and healing of emotional and physical barriers.
And there are countless other examples I could give.
Strengthening your faith is also a process- a simultantlously brutal and beautiful one.
Salvation is Simple
But the cool thing about life with Jesus is that the salvation that He offers isn’t a process. Yes, becoming more like Him and growing in your faith takes time and trial, but salvation is simple.
Your belief changes everything.
“The Bible clearly teaches that the moment a person turns from his sin and trusts in Jesus to be forgiven of his sin, he is saved (Acts 2:37-41). He has passed from spiritual death to spiritual life (John 5:24) and has been declared not guilty in God's court of law (Rom 3:21-26)”
From this place of belief, we can then most effectively change our behavior. Our good works aren’t in pursuit of new identity, but FROM the new identity He has already given us.
Just like psychology proves that the best way to change something about your life is to first believe that you are perfectly loved as you are before making any changes, the same is true in our walk with God.
After we first believe that Jesus divinely accepts us as we are, forgives us our sins, and makes us white as snow in the here and now, we can face life’s inevitable trials with confidence.
We know the trials and triumphs we experience are teaching us more about Jesus, His people, and His plan.
Meeting Your Match
Maybe this week, you feel as though you have really met your match.
Maybe a tough anatomy, math, or chemistry class really has you down.
Maybe people are really testing your patience.
Maybe your in a season of mundane and lackluster.
Maybe your struggling to keep your mind focused on the right things.
I don’t know what you're currently up against, but I do know that fear can convince some of the smartest people of things that don’t make a whole lot of sense. On the other hand, just a little bit of faith can pull people who are at their lowest out of whatever pit they feel they are in.
I know this week and the future may seem scary. But before going crazy worrying, planning, and being frantic, consider commencing with a belief that God can make the burden you’re carrying light- not because what you face will be easily conquered or that everything will perfectly pan out- but because you are working from His unconditional love and not for it.
Just like the child who feels secure in their parent's love, we can also feel at home in God's love for us. Out of the overflow of the security He offers, we can freely set big goals and know that any mistakes/failures that come can undoubtedly be used to show Christ's sufficiency amidst our weakness.
Talk to you next week!
- Bailee!
Comentários