Remember your Mission Possible? You desperately need to get this, Agent Hunt! Everything important in your life literally hinges on your ability to permanently break free of the Acting-Out Cycle, precisely because we always reap what we sow. Imagine all the crap you have sowed into your spiritual account thus far, and then use that as motivation to fry the following images into your brain forever.

The Endless Circle

Does this describe your life? Addicts trapped in their cycles never move forward because they only go around in circles, covering and recovering the same ground over and over again, like the Israelites in the Wilderness. Your only consistency is inconsistency! You can never move forward because you never pass the tests of life, you never learn from the past. Making the same mistakes over and over again will eventually cost you your marriage, your children, your job, your sanity, your faith…

The Endless Up and Down

Here’s another of way of thinking about the Acting-Out Cycle visually. If you spend all your time going up in pursuit of your next high and then crashing down into yet another depressed low because you relapsed yet again, you’re still vertically covering and recovering the same old ground. Over and over and over again. You can spend huge amounts of energy, money, and time—most of us already have—going up and trying to stay up. Or conversely trying to dig your way out of that deep pit you just fell into yet again. Either way, there’s no forward progress; history just repeats itself, and you’re doomed to suffer the consequences.

The Long Obedience in the Same Direction

Hey, look at that! Here’s another alternative to the endless cycle. You can actually move from Point A to Point B, Upward and Onward into the Kingdom of God. Eugene Petersen calls this The Long Obedience in the Same Direction. Notice that there are still ups and downs climbing up the mountain of God, but even so, you’re covering new ground. In a sense, when you’re moving forward, even a downward pit is a victory because at least it’s a new pit you haven’t fallen into before! And what about those successes?! You’re learning from past mistakes. Making progress. Building a sure foundation.

Your Brother in the Battle,

Timothy

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Excerpt taken from Pureheart Ministry’s Basic Training! Stage 1: Operation Purity

Copyright ©2023 Timothy Davis