Leadership Thought: The Dangerous Chains of Habit.

Dear Friends,

Several years ago, I made a copy the following quotation because it made such an impression on me.  

“I am the servant of all great men, and alas, of all failures as well. Those who are great, I have made great. Those who are failures, I have made failures. I am not a machine, though I work with all the precision of a machine plus the intelligence of a man. You may run me for profit or run me for a ruin- it makes no difference to me. Take me, train me, be firm with me, and I will place the world at your feet. Be easy with me, and I will destroy you. Who am I? I am habit.” Quoted from Thinking for Change, John Maxwell, page 12.

The kind of habits we form in life will play a large part in our success or failure.  There are some habits that I wish I had cultivated earlier in my life and there are some I wish I had avoided.

In a book that is now out of print, titled Counsel to the Young, I clipped the following quote: “We act from habit nine times for every time we act from purposeful deliberation. Little do we comprehend the momentous consequences of our frequently repeated actions, for habits, can add wings or weight to our feet.”

How often we can be brought low by little habits that creep into our lives, and while at first, we don't give much attention to them, little by little they begin to take their toll. Maybe it's a little sin that we think we can get away with. No one will notice the tiny crevice in our character until the crevice becomes a crack that is no longer hidden but is obvious for all to see.

I remember once sharing a personal story on integrity, and I said integrity begins with staplers and stamps. Dishonesty doesn't start with the robbing of a bank, but often the theft of a stapler or some stamps.

Just as the wind can topple a huge tree that outwardly seems healthy but is diseased within, so to those little cracks in our character can grow large enough to destroy us and bring us down. Peter, David, Abraham, were all susceptible to hidden faults that produced much tragedy and heartache in their own lives and in the lives of others.

We must learn from their mistakes, and in so doing we will help ensure that when the winds blow, and the storms come our character will remain forever solid and strong.

One person said it well when he commented that “habits are like a comfortable bed - easy to get into but hard to get out of.”

Is there some little habit that needs to be addressed in our lives? Is there some tiny crack in our character that while still hidden from the eyes of others, can grow and lead to the ultimate collapse of our spiritual character? If so, let us ask God to help us address it today, “For the chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.” Lloyd Corey.

Yours in ministry,

Tom