Why do we need so long to change and grow?

"It is only little by little that the Lord your God will drive out these nations before you, you will not be able to eliminate them all at once"

Bien que Dieu soit capable de nous transformer instantanément, il a choisi de le faire progressivement. Jesus forme ses disciples peu à peu. De même que Dieu a voulu que les Israélites conquièrent la Terre promise « petit à petit » pour qu’ils ne soient pas submergés par les bêtes sauvages, il préfère travailler pas à pas dans nos vies.

Why do we need so long to change and grow? There are several reasons for this.

We are slow to learn. We often have to repeat the same lesson forty or fifty times to get it right. The same problems keep coming back and we think, “Not that yet! I already learned it! But God knows better than us. The history of Israel illustrates how quickly we forget the lessons it teaches us and how quick we are to fall back into our old patterns of behavior. We need to be exposed to the same situation over and over again.

We have a lot to unlearn. Many will find a counselor with a personal or relationship problem that has taken years to develop, saying, “I would like you to fix this for me. I have an hour. They are naively waiting for a quick solution to a difficulty which does not date from yesterday and which is deeply rooted in them. Because most of our problems - and all of our bad habits - don't crop up overnight, it's unrealistic to expect them to go away immediately.

Growth is often painful and distressing. There is no growth without change; there is no change without fear or loss and there is no loss without suffering. Even if our old ways led us to ruin, we dread these losses because, like an old pair of worn out shoes, they were at least comfortable and familiar.

An action for today

Every change involves some form of loss. You must give up the old ways to advance in the news.

Source: topchretiem