29

January

Different outcome? Change the input!

“Many of us want God to do a new thing while we keep doing the same old same old.  Can I speak the truth in love?  Your system is perfectly designed for the results you’re getting.  More of the same doesn’t always get us where we want to go.  If you want a different outcome, change the input.”- Mark Batterson

“Ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds of the sky, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you.”- Job 12:7-8 (NIV)

As Mark Batterson moves on in Chapter 1 of A Million Little Miracles, he states the key to spiritual growth: routine.  A practice known as spiritual disciplines.  However, Mark quips, once a practice becomes routine, we must change the routine.  It’s called the law of requisite variety.

Therefore, Pastor Batterson underscores, new revelations tend to happen when we change our routine.  Above all, a small change can make a big difference.  Hence, Mark applier this simple formula to his life:

Change of pace + change of place = change of perspective.

In fac, Henry David Thoreau observed that his thought began to flow the moment his legs moved.  Most significantly, Mark states, when you exercise your muscles secrete chemicals into the bloodstream called myokines.  Also known as hope molecules, those teeny myokines pass through the blood-brain barrier.  In the process, they function as an antidepressant.

Job 12:7-8 served as George Washington Carver’s life verse.  A verse he took literally.  As a result, every morning at four o’ clock Carver enrolled in the greatest classroom — God’s green earth.  Carver viewed nature as the little window through which God permitted him to commune with God.  On his walks, Carver simply lifted the curtain and looked in.

In conclusion, Carver expanded this concept.  He once said:

“Anything will give up its secrets if you love it enough.  Not only have I found that when I talk to the little flower or to the little peanut they will give up their secrets, but I have found that when I silently commune with people they give up their secrets also — if you love them enough.”

Today’s question: What input do you need to change to affect a different outcome?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Faith adds God to every equation”

About the author 

Dave Henning

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