Music.

The Rooted Podcast. My name is Luke, and here we believe that lasting life change can happen

for your good and for God's glory.

We're going to continue a conversation we've been having the past couple episodes about,

what does it mean to live in the light, and this idea of stepping out of denial, of really

wrestling with the decision to pursue change, to pursue healing, to pursue breaking addiction,

breaking cycles, finding healing, and making lasting life change.

And the first thing we need to do is we need to admit that things are not right.

We don't have it all together, we're stuck.

So we need to make a choice. We need to make a choice to change.

But change, change is hard. If you've ever had to make significant changes in your life, right, you know that it's difficult,

right?

Anyone who, you know what, anyone who's ever made a New Year's resolution, you know exactly

what I'm talking about. You know how hard it is to make change, to try and make a habit stick.

Because there's always so many obstacles.

There's the time commitment, there's the resources, it's inconvenient, I'm not used to it all

forget, right? You know, we see this play out in a grand social experiment every year

when we make New Year's resolutions to go to the gym more often and gyms swell with

new members and people. And then eventually it becomes really difficult, you know, it's

just would be easier to not go to the gym today, right? And as simple as or as mundane

as trying to build a workout habit might sound, it's a perfect example for the type of change

that we're trying to make. We want to make change, but seeing change in our life is hard.

It's difficult.

And what I want to do today is I want to open up this conversation.

I want to break down a lie that I think we sometimes get stuck with.

A pattern of thinking, a way in which that kind of just keeps us from really having a true dialogue with ourself over what it is that we want.

Because we're people who want ease, right? We want fast food. We want it convenient.

Convenient, we want it simpler, easier, faster, right? And that's not necessarily wrong, right?

Like we, you know, like we want to figure out the best way to do something so that it

doesn't have to take as long or take as much energy. There's some good to trying to figure

out how to be wise with our time, how to do things efficiently. And so we put a value

on that, and we have this dialogue in our mind, and we say, you know what, not changing

is the easier option.

That's the belief that we hold in our mind, is we believe that there's two options in front of us.

I could deal with this addiction, I could do the work to deal with generational sin

and patterns and relationships and hurt, I could try and do the work to make the change

and follow the Lord and step out into obedience, but those are so hard. It's actually way easier

if I just don't do those things. That's what we believe. It's easier to not change.

I want to propose to you that that is just an absolute lie. That's not true, that it isn't

easier to not change. That actually not changing is actually pretty hard. And I want to tell you

you what I show you what I mean by that. And so let's, let's pick an example here. Alright,

let's stick with what I started with going to the gym, right? Let's just talk about a

simple habit that you're trying to try and establish your, you know what, the next year,

my New Year's resolution is to take better care of myself to invest in my physical well

being and that is going to result in me going to the gym. In order to me to do that, I'm

I'm going to go to the gym, let's say twice, twice a week.

I'm gonna go to the gym twice a week, gonna do a mixture of cardio and weightlifting.

Just, you know, something kind of, nothing, not gonna go crazy,

just not gonna go to a CrossFit gym, right?

Not gonna come, a gym rat, be there every single day, but I'm gonna go twice a week and just do some cardio

and some weightlifting, you know, for like an hour or so, twice a week.

And.

Well, we start doing that and we get into it, we try and integrate it into our schedule

and we're just like, you know what, this is really hard.

Like, like I don't don't exactly know what my workout plan is and I feel awkward at the

gym and it's a time commitment and it would just be so much easier to just keep doing

what I was doing. So I'm not going to kind of just let this kind of slide over time.

Well, we might think that's the easier thing until our bodies stop working, right?

Maybe you want to play with your kids.

Maybe you want to just play some kickball, right? Or play in a softball league.

And you go to do that and you're like, whoo, my body is not able to do this like it was.

Or perhaps you're losing some flexibility and your job or household chores become more difficult.

Be you don't lose some of the weight that you were hoping to lose by going to the gym

regularly and you gain weight. And that can create a whole load of health problems and

inconveniences. You have to buy new clothes because the old ones don't fit, things like

that. And that is actually really hard. If you add all those things up, not changing

came with a lot of difficult things, things that you've got to deal with and handle.

Now hear me that this example is not minimizing the difficulty of getting into the gym.

I myself, it's a personal goal I've been working with for a while of how can I take better

care of my body and my health.

So I'm not minimizing this or saying any of this can try it or trying to make you feel

less than if that's particularly where you struggle or if those have even been your experiences.

I share those out of my own experience as well.

But the point that I want to draw out here is that, yeah, going to the gym is hard, but but also.

Dealing with all the consequences of not going to the gym and taking care of my health is also hard,

right and all of a sudden right if we begin to lay that out all of a sudden this doesn't become a.

Doesn't become a conversation between well, there's one easy choice and one hard choice,

There's actually now two hard choices.

Two things I choose to do and each of them is going to be hard in a different way,

way. But one of them has an outcome that I don't want, and one of them has an outcome

that I do want, right? And the question is, is what, which hard thing would I rather do?

And which outcome would I rather get? So let's kind of break it down into these kind of quick

statements here. Saying or staying where we are and how we are is hard, right? Staying

Staying in addiction, staying alone and isolated in the place that we are, staying hurt, staying

in a place where we feel stuck is hard.

Probably why you're listening to this podcast. It's why I'm making this podcast because staying stuck is hard.

It's uncomfortable.

It's causing consequences. It's hard. Staying where we are and how we are is hard.

Point is that seeking healing and change is also hard. It's not easy to make change. It's

not easy to come into the light. It's not easy to surrender ourselves to Christ. It

is not easy at all. It is a combination of both Christ working in us and us striving

to work out our salvation, to do these things together, right? It's not easy.

But that leads us to this third statement, to this question.

Which of those two things will you choose to see the life that you want to have in the future?

Right? The two hard things. Staying where I'm at, staying how I am is hard.

It's going to come with consequences that are hard. Making change, seeking healing, surrendering myself, getting help is also hard.

But if I do that, there's chances that I might get the life that I want.

Which of those two choices is the one that you're going to make?

And this helps us just kind of get off autopilot a little bit.

I find that we get into a place where we have, again, that thought that not changing is the easier thing.

And we just kind of default to not making a choice, to not choosing to change.

But what we have done is we have chosen to not change, right?

By saying, I'll just make off and kind of putting off the decision about whether or

not I should go to this group or I should ask for help.

Putting off that decision. You're not putting off a decision, you're making a decision.

You're making the decision to stay where you are.

And that's a hard choice coming with hard consequences.

And that's okay. It's your decision to make. I'm not here to tell you when you need to make those choices.

I'm just saying that I want to help you see more clearly the place that you're in, to

begin to have those tools, to have that conversation with yourself about, am I in denial?

Am I choosing to not make a choice, having made a choice, and still dealing with the

difficult consequences?

And so that is where it is for us.

I don't know exactly what I just said, but what I mean simply here is that when we begin

to see what's in front of us, those difficult things in front of us, is not just the easy

thing and the hard thing.

We see them both as hard, but we see that there's hope, there's change, that the life

that we want is at the end of the other one.

Hard choice becomes not as hard. It becomes a little bit easier to make that difficult

choice for change. So thank you for listening and joining in this conversation. I ask that

you would like and subscribe to this video. If you have any questions or comments, drop

them in the comments below if you're watching this on YouTube or elsewhere. And if you're

listening to the podcast, click on the email, send me an email, let me know what you're

Let me know what's this bringing up for you.

Let me know what questions you kind of have, what more I can kind of clarify in these thoughts that I'm sharing.

Hope that you have a blessed time. Until I see you next, I'll talk to you later.

Music.