Week of February 28, 2010
- Pastor Duane Cross
- Mar 1, 2010
THE NATURE OF THE WILL
John Ortbert, in his new book, “The Me I Want to Be”, writes these words:
In a series of brilliant experiments, psychologist Roy Baumeister has studied the nature and limits of willpower. One key question was, “Once you exercise your willpower—say, by resisting temptation for five minutes—does that make your willpower stronger, weaker, or unchanged for the next few minutes?”
Baumeister had certain subjects exert willpower by resisting the temptation to eat delicious, fresh, warm, gooey chocolate chip cookies—eating only radishes instead. Another set of subjects did not have to resist eating cookies. Then all the subjects were assigned complex math problems to solve—problems that were actually impossible to solve—in order to measure how long people will exercise willpower to persevere in frustration.
The people who had to resist eating chocolate chip cookies gave up on problem-solving much more quickly than the other subjects. In other words, our willpower is easily fatigued. We can use our wills to override our habits for a few moments, but our habits will always beat willpower alone in the long run.
The will is good at big simple choices: getting married, or taking a job, or joining AA. But the will is very bad at trying to overcome habits or attitudes that have become embedded in our bodies. Deep change takes more than willpower. It requires God renewing our minds. It requires surrender.
The next time you try to turn down warm chocolate chip cookies, think about it.
Warmly,
Pastor Duane
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