Habits are powerful tools. We do many things daily that are habitual. We tie our shoes, put on our clothes and drive our cars. Habits save time and labor, aid in efficiency and minimize fatigue. For example, people who use typewriters or computers may work for long periods without undue fatigue and complete accurate results. However, people who have not learned these habits often tire quickly after an hour of work.
We watch athletes and ice-skaters and marvel at their poise and movement. What we are truly marveling at are their skills—the habits they have mastered. Similarly, when we admire the skill of a surgeon, musician or craftsman, we are admiring the basic habits that they have acquired.
Likewise, when we admire someone’s character, ideals, values and basic loyalties, we are admiring their wonderful habits. Character is a bundle of habits that become part of one’s inner being.
Undoubtedly, we are creatures of habit. Habits can be good or bad, helpful or harmful, freeing or enslaving. Thus, we can choose what kind of habits we develop. We can create new habits or break old ones. There is a close relation between habits and religion.
I believe one’s faith becomes effective and builds stamina only when it becomes habitual in the thinking and the behavior of the individual. When we study the lives of Biblical heroes, we see how pious habits affected their lives. For example, Daniel, a high-ranking official in King Darius’ palace, refused to worship the emperor and was condemned to die. He went “to his upstairs room where the window opened toward Jerusalem and prayed three times a day, just as he had done before” (Daniel 6:10). In other words, Daniel’s religious faith was habitual.
There is a sense in which Jesus’ faith was habitual. We read in the Gospels that immediately following his temptation, Jesus went to Nazareth, his hometown, “where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as his custom was” (Luke 4:16). As we read about Jesus’ life, time and again, we come across this significant phase: “As his custom was.” “As his custom was, he went into the synagogue.” “As his custom was, he blessed little children.” “As his custom was, he went up into the mountain to pray.”
Humanly speaking, Jesus understood the power of customs—or habits—in one’s religious faith. Habits play an important role in one’s spiritual journey. If a person’s religious life is to grow and become a real power, then it ought to be habitual, like second nature.
Take, for example, church attendance. For a true believer, it is a habitual thing, not a sporadic performance. Of course, churchgoing is not necessarily the only criterion for being a Christian, and obviously, church attendance is not synonymous with Christian behavior.
No one, however, would be so naïve to suggest that there is no vital connection between the two. No one can claim that they are a Christian but do not attend church services. There is no such thing as solitary Christianity. The church is the Body of Christ, a divinely ordained institution that offers the opportunity to worship God as revealed through Jesus Christ. It offers a religious education and sense of belonging to a community of support and service. The church serves as a school for worship, fellowship and service. No one expects to gain much from a school if they do not attend classes regularly and participate in class activities. Certainly, regularity of attendance and participation are as indispensable in the education process as in the process of Christian development.
Church attendance, or non-attendance, is primarily a habit. The most common statement made by church-related people who do not attend church regularly is: “There is so much to do on Sunday morning that we’ve just gotten out of the habit of going to church.” Conversely, there are others who attend regularly and claim, “We just never think of missing church. It is part of our lives.”
The Christian church has always valued the educational power of habits. For example, the season of Lent has been established by Christian churches for disciplinary considerations. The reasoning is that if people dedicate a period of time to meditation, reflection, prayer and reading of the Bible, as many Christians do during the 40 days of the Lenten season, then they eventually develop habits that become part of their character.
One can never truly become acquainted with God through a casual or occasional reaching toward Him. God becomes significant in one’s life to the degree that the cultivation of friendship with Him is habitual, daily and constant. When people develop the habit of turning their thoughts toward God, they discover that their awareness of Him begins to grow. God ceases to be an idea and becomes an experience. They discover that God is not the power to be spoken of in the past tense; He is a present companion in their lives.
Rev. Dr. Vahan Tootikian
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