Decide to Change
Someone recently told me about a high school runner who decided to start running every day without exception. This one decision took him from an average runner to an elite one. He improved his race time by three minutes and placed near the top in the state finals, making him a contender as a walk-on freshman runner in college.
The 2021 season was less than mediocre for Trevor Lawrence as the rookie quarterback of the Jacksonville Jaguars. The 2022 season started the same. Midway through his second season, though, Lawrence made the decision to be better. While they didn’t make it to the Super Bowl, the Jaguars second season with Lawrence verged on spectacular.
I’m not sure what I expected from the docuseries Limitless with Chris Hemsworth. Certainly, I thought I’d learn something about longevity. That happened, but so too did the idea that no matter our level of success in life, every person can decide to change. Simply making the decision to overcome fears and push limits changed Hemsworth’s life in ways no one could expect.
These individuals coupled with my own decision to make going deeper my focus for the coming year led me on a journey forward and backwards. This journey seems to be putting a cap on many of my mental struggles while at the same time opening the floodgates to moving into a healthy mental state like I’ve never experienced.
Journeying Backwards
The first time I remember deciding to change something because the pain of where I was became greater than the pain of change is when I realized the connection between my physical and mental health. Specifically, I realized that I was addicted to sugar, and this addiction was affecting me in numerous detrimental ways, not the least of which was exacerbating depression.
Later, soon after the birth of my oldest child, I remember deciding to directly attack depression itself because I did not want my son to grow up under the weight of my depression. While the journey took many, many years and a lot of small steps, depression no longer has the hold on me it did then. Even though my son may have memories of times I struggled, I hope he also sees that I overcame those struggles because I made the decision to do so.
Deciding to Go Deeper
The road to deeper involves making the decision to do better and to overcome old habits. It means establishing healthier habits not through self-discipline and self-reliance but through the Holy Spirit. Deciding to go deeper means trusting in his provision as much as in his strength even while I feel inadequate and weak.
“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” (Isaiah 43:18-19)
My decision to go deeper in every area of life means not dwelling on the past but instead looking at the newness God is working in my life. It involves believing that he will make the impossible possible, even when I feel overwhelmed or discouraged.
Make the Decision
I can make the decision to go deeper because of what God has done in my life, what he has help me overcome. The decision is easy to make because I know he gives me exactly what I can handle – even if my feelings tell me I can’t – or he gives me a way to handle it that’s beyond any adequacy on my part.
I can make the decision to go deeper because God is faithful. He will do what he says he will do. I know this because he has always done what he said he would in my life, a truth confirmed by the many examples of his activity throughout the Bible and in the lives of other Christians.
Wherever you are today, whatever struggle is weighing you down, make the decision to overcome it. You don’t have to know how it will happen. You don’t even need to feel like it can. Just take one step of faith and trust that God knows.
Decide to become healthier mentally and physically. Decide to repair and strengthen your relationships. Make the decision to seek God daily. Decide to take a step toward change and trust that God will make a way through what right now seems impossible.
“For with God nothing shall be impossible.” (Luke 1:37)
