Goodbye Habituation!

My New Year's goal is to fight "habituation." Psychologist  Lynn Johnson in his book "Enjoy Life"  says that habituation is the reason why we can't be happy forever with what we have (X). A person thinks if he gets $10,000 he will be happy. Then that person gets his $10,000. But in time he gets habituated to that amount, and then he wants more in order to be happy. In essence habituation contributes to our profound sense of unhappiness and also makes us thankless for what we already have. As Proverbs 27:20 reminds us, "Death and destruction are never satisfied and neither are human eyes."

I have become habituated to my ministry, my church, my wife, my children, my car, my house....., and sometimes I wish if only my church would grow in number, if only I had a bigger house, if only..... then only I would be happy. And as a result I begin to envy my more successful  pastor friends and begin to work more hours for that extra money to buy that bigger something..... Habituation not only undermines my happiness but also my sense of gratitude toward God for all that he has already given me.  I want habituation gone in 2014. Therefore I do not ask God for anything new this new year. I ask God to break my bondage to habituation and help me rejoice in what he has already given me beginning with the year I was born through 2013.