The Power of Habit (Doubleday Canada, 2012)
This is a book that I have found very helpful in understanding and addressing bad/unproductive habits as well as habitual sin. It is a business book and I don’t like to recommend business books often, but this one is worth the read for those who want to understand the forming and reforming of habits.
“A Helpful Message on Changing Habits With Application Toward Habitual Sin In Our Lives”
by Andy Stanley
Sorry, listening to the audio on this website requires Flash support in your browser. You can try playing the MP3 file directly by clicking here.
In a few weeks I will have the distinct privelage to be with a handful of other NAB pastors under the teaching leadership of Jeff Vanderstelt. I have known Jeff for many years since he was a youth pastor in Seattle. He is an amazing leader with an amazing passion to see the Kingdom of God grow and multiply. I know that I will be challenged with the two days that we will be with Jeff and his church family at Soma in Tacoma. The video above is a snippet of the teaching we will be receiving.
I am very excited to be walking through the Gospel of Mark as a community in this new year. I, as I said during my sermon on Sunday, always enjoy walking through the Gospels. This study of Mark will be a fun and challenging journey. I hope to be able to use this blog as a spot for further notes and thoughts.
Over the Christmas break I had the privilege of reading a great book entitled “The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business” by Charles Duhigg. It is a very interesting book on habits, the forming of habits and the reforming of habits. It is a bit scientific in the beginning (which I actually enjoyed) as it addresses the anatomy of habits, but transitions into helpful advice on how to set good habits and change bad or undesirable habits into productive habits.
It has been a long while since I have read a “business” book, but I found this one very interesting as I made the application to the curse of habitual sin in our lives. It made me realize how ingrained some sins and unhealthy habits are in our lives. So much so that we are often two to three steps into the sin before we even realize we are headed that way.
I will be writing more about this in the next few weeks as I have been spending much time thinking on this topic and know the struggle that we all find ourselves in with regard to sin habits.
For now though I wanted to share the podcast interview with Charles Duhigg conducted by Pastor Andy Stanley. It is brief and just begins to touch on the topic, but I found it interesting.