Real Change: How does it happen?

So many times, my head knows what is true… but my heart doesn’t quite get the message. It’s been said, “The longest journey that a man must take is the 18 inches from his head to his heart.” I see it most around 3 am, when I wake up and can’t seem to turn off my brain.  I start to worry… a low level anxiety begins to seep into my night.

It has only been in the last few years that this began to change.

How did that happen?

Doing the Opposite

Now… I do the opposite.  “Doing the opposite” is a concept I talk about a lot with my coaching clients.  It’s all over Scripture: “in giving we receive,” “in dying we live”…the opposite – those upside down principles that Jesus talks about.

So how does it work today?  Well, for most of my life, I just tried to believe harder.  I would push those nagging fears aside and try not to think about them.  Still, they never quite went away.  They were like gnats that wouldn’t leave me alone, swarming around my face as I tried to sleep.  I’d swat at those gnats in the dark, and usually end up hitting myself in the face.

And so it is with “trying not to think about something.”  We usually end up hitting ourselves in the face… but the gnat doesn’t go away.   Whatever we focus on we move toward.

All these were good intentions but they missed the mark.

Push Into the Hard Places

Now… I actually push into my fear and anxiety.  I allow myself (for a moment) to feel the anxiety and fear.   As I do this, I uncover what I really believe about myself and about God in the core of my heart.

I uncover the lies that say,

“I am completely alone,”

“I am in danger,”

“I don’t matter,”

“It’s hopeless.”

I expose what that part of my heart is believing… and I then invite the Spirit of God to reveal Truth to the core of my heart and replace the lies with their accompanying fear and anxiety.

When my heart is naked and laid bare before God, it is only then that I begin to experience the “truth in the inmost place” that David wrote about in the Psalms.

“I am not alone.  He is always with me.”

“I am completely loved.”

“He will protect me and lead me step by step as I seek Him.”

“My hope is in Him.”

“I can’t… but He CAN!”

I finally get it.  The gnat is gone.  The Truth has set me free.  I can sleep.  Thank you Jesus.

Need this kind of change in your life? Want some help in “doing the opposite?”