Don't Copy

Don't copy!

We all used to hear that in school - don't copy. Copying is cheating. It's especially cheating and very bad if you do it during a test.

If I don't copy, and I don't know what to do, then what I am supposed to do?

I've been in a particularly difficult situation lately. Personalities and routine ways of behaving and reacting are dragging everyone in this situation into a particular downward spiral of actions and reactions. It's been very predictable and not at all positive or productive.

And I, of all people, got sucked into it!!! Do you know how hard it is to pull yourself from this copying behavior of others. It's like going around a whirlpool, and I can see the center of the spiral and I can't do a thing to get out. I'm getting sucked closer and closer with every action and reaction.

Someone help me. I do those things I do not want to do! I say things, and instantly regret them as I see them fueling the vortex and the actions and reactions of others.

How can I stop contributing to this behavior? I have been in a state of anxiety before every situation, knowing that I was powerless to do anything. Even the most innocent statement could and probably would set off the others to act and react and start the swirling, whirling descent.

I was re-reading Romans 12:2 in the New Living Translation where it says: Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world (I really want to stop doing this but how??!!), but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.

Aha! I don't have to do anything! I can enter these situations, and simply by yielding to God, and recognizing Him in this situation (what He thinks, what He wants, what He sees) and reacting to Him instead of to them, I can be changed, and my behavior can change as well.

It's an exercise - a spiritual exercise that reaps benefits. As we exercise ourselves to mind these things, eventually our whole being will be according to the Spirit (see blog post of Aug. 29).

So, here I am exercising my spiritual muscles in order that I might be habitually dominated by the Spirit and not by my flesh.