Living Systems

What we think about, we plan.

What we plan, we do.

What we do, becomes a habit.

Our habits become our destiny.

We all create systems with our actions.  We can't help it.  We learn by doing, and so what we do becomes easier.  Before long, something we chose to do once we are now doing every day, sometimes so easily that we don't even stop to ask ourselves why.  The danger to these accidental habits is that we can find our available agency bound up in a cloud of jell-o, and we despair of being free.

It doesn't have to be this way.

God gave us the Atonement.  He gave us the Gospel of Jesus Christ so that we might learn about the Atonement.  Therein lies the solution to our despair.  God is Free, and He wants us to become free like Him.  We do not do this through a grand force of will.  We don't have a showdown with the Devil: a duel at high-noon.  We do this through force of habit.

You see, a habit is a piece of a system.  And any system is greater than the sum of its parts.  Take your job for instance:  What do you do to get paid?  You perform the role you were hired in, but there is a mountain of habit underneath that role that makes you successful.  You brush your teeth every day, you bathe regularly, you wear clean clothes, you discipline yourself to wake up on time, you kiss your spouse goodbye so they'll pack you a healthy lunch, you smile at babies and wish the receptionist a good morning.  All of these actions are part of a system whereby you sustain yourself and your family.

There are two kinds of systems, living and finite.  

Finite systems have diminishing returns.  Addiction is a classic example.  All of your habitual actions are pointed to a purpose that is impossible: to be happy in sin.  As such, the system is doomed to failure, and the actions in that system chase themselves into a tighter and tighter loop over time, eventually consuming you in Me and Now.

Living systems have increasing returns.  Raising children is a good example.  The individual, habitual actions in raising a child seem to be dead ends, but diligence in maintaining this system reaps a harvest that is plentiful.  "Children are an heritage of the Lord."  These actions broaden the scope of what our heart sees so that we can live in God and Eternity.

How much of your day do you spend sustaining your Living Systems?