Changing defeating mindsets, destructive patterns, and damaging coping mechanisms is not easy. Simply because none of those things developed in a day, thus, they won’t be dug out in a day.
They’ve grown roots, deep ones, and negativity has watered them well. Sadistically, they’ve granted their host an ignominious identity as victim. Their host has become comfortable with them, to the degree that the loss of them causes a type of panic. “What will I do, who will I be, without these pathologies?”
Taking new, constructive approaches to challenges can feel as foreign as learning to write with the non-dominant hand. Frustration ensues, and a desire to ‘just go back to the other way’ rises up. After all, even if that path ends in hell, at least the landlord there is “the devil you know”.
But what of Heaven? What if, in that new way of life, a path opens up to a place the diseased martyr has never been? A place where both illness is excised and the label ‘sinner’ is replaced with health and ‘saint’? If that is the destination, isn’t it worth the journey?
In the end, there is a choice. For the host, it’s often hard to see that the roads diverge, but if you look closely through strained vision and the low fog, a northern gravel trail will come into view. Narrow and steep, it may not seem as appealing as the clear, downhill highway to the south. It may be unsettling to be ignorant of its twists and turns, when the well-worn side streets of the common route are so familiar. But recall the dead ends. The roundabouts that re-set the trip to START.
Intrepid traveler, your maps reveal what wisdom you’ve earned. The sun is up:
Set your course.