When we left Nashville and moved back to Canada, I was resolved to fix this one thing that had eluded me my entire life.
No matter how hard I tried, I could never figure it out.
Was it that I didn’t care? Or was it just that the pain of changing was greater than the pain of staying the same?
All I knew was that if I didn’t address this one thing, it could potentially lead to the downfall of my marriage, my family, and my ministry.
Before I share this one thing that I’m referring to, I’m curious whether you have something like this in your life? Is there something that—if left unattended—could eventually undermine your life and ministry? Some part of your life that isn’t necessarily an example for others in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, and in purity? (1 Timothy 4:12)
For me, it was my health. What is it for you?
As I shared in my book, You Are What You Do: And Six Other Lies about Work, Life, and Love, it was pornography and lust at one point in my life. At another point it was alcohol. But, as it says in 1 Corinthians 15:57, “thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!”
For some reason though, even though I found victory over those matters that plagued me in the past, I thought my health was a different matter. Well…that was until my annual physical showed otherwise. The results showed that if I were to keep eating the way I was eating and only exercising once or twice a week, my life, ministry, marriage, and testimony could be cut short.
So I was resolved to change. I was resolved to create new habits and rhythms so that I could experience victory in this matter, like I had experienced victory over my prior addictions.
It is a well known fact that in order to change, you have to create a new rhythm and habit, and resolve to stick with it for at least a few weeks.
So when we moved back to Canada, I decided that I wouldn’t allow myself to go into work unless I first went to the gym.
I know this sounds extreme, but I had to do something extreme, since I wanted to be around to see my children get married, to hold my grandchildren, and grow old serving Jesus together with my wife.
So that’s what I did. I started every day with a 30 minute workout at the gym before heading into work—no matter what the weather. And I’m proud to say that I did this for seven straight months—other than when I was doing physiotherapy because of a couple car accidents.
And then COVID-19 hit and my gym shut down.
Then my office shut down.
Then we bought lots of COVID snacks because…why not?!
To be honest, I was pretty devastated, since I had finally created a new rhythm and habit and I was feeling better (and looking better) than I ever had. But here’s the thing: In the face of opposition, we need to choose resilience. We need to choose tenacity. We need to choose to move forward, rather than feel sorry for ourselves.
So instead of being angry at COVID-19 for ruining our rhythms and habits, Christina and I chose to pivot instead.
We cancelled our gym membership and decided to finance a Peloton bike instead, since it cost the same amount of money. (As a side note, if you’re interested in purchasing one, just use my referral code ZN38HX and you’ll get $125 off). And I’m proud to say that today was my ninth straight week on the Peloton in my new rhythm and habit!!
So while COVID-19 has likely disrupted many of your rhythms and habits, the solution isn’t to wait until things go back to normal, since there’s no going back. Because…
- If you don’t pivot, you won’t survive.
- If you don’t pace yourself, you won’t survive.
- If you don’t rest, you won’t survive.
- And if you don’t create new rhythms and habits, you won’t survive.
So what’s your next step toward change?
In Chinese, the word “crisis” is made up of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity. So how are you going to leverage this global and personal crisis as an opportunity for change? To create the new rhythms and habits that will help you move forward and pivot?