Law #9
Teach Others
As we said in the introduction, it is only when our very nature begins to
change, that real change will really come. One of the most effective means of
helping the new nature to develop in us is to assist other people as they try to
do the same.
Effective change will not really occur until all the things listed above become
deeply imbedded in our hearts. Simple knowledge of the right way does not
solve problems. As mentioned earlier, the drug addict lying in a gutter
usually knows his problem and the solution, but it still doesn’t help him.
In order to change we must want to go in a new direction. We have to
desire it passionately. Finally we must go through the difficult and
sometimes painful process of changing our habits, our ways of thinking and even
our very nature. God accomplishes the change of nature, but we can assist
in the process,
hinder
the process or even prevent it from happening at all. It requires a period
of hard work, but, once our habits, ways of thinking and nature have changed,
things get much easier and our life starts to move in the new direction with
much less effort.
As mentioned in Law 5, most of the most important decisions we make, we aren’t
even aware of. That is because most of the decisions we make each day are
based on mindless habits, not conscious thought. A loser doesn’t have to try
very hard to fail. It’s just his or her nature. Without
even any conscious
effort, lifelong habits and attitudes will assure continued failure. The
secret of changing from a loser to a winner is not to focus on acquiring new
knowledge, but rather to focus on acquiring a new nature. God can bring
this, but it takes time to develop. We must let God do God’s part and we
have to do ours. We must act in cooperation with God and not fight God
during this very important period. When we have this new nature, success
will be almost as effortless as failure was before. We will not have
to concentrate or work hard to do what is right. It will be our nature.
We will do it naturally out of habit. Ironically, when our new nature
comes, slipping back into our old ways of failure will actually be difficult and
require effort.
Since it is God that changes us, it only makes sense that we need to spend more
time with God if we want to change. This has already been discussed in the 4th
and 5th great laws. Another extremely effective element to help the
change come swiftly and powerfully is to assist other people in the process of
change. For proper growth and strength we need all these elements.
Assisting others, means to teach, encourage, chide …or basically do whatever it takes to help those who want to change, change. The key word here is to “assist”. If we start thinking that we can change a person by our own effort we are starting to play God again and our own spiritual health is jeopardized.
We can assist a dysfunctional person to become functional, we can assist a
functional person to remain functional or we can assist someone who is already
quite healthy to become even stronger. In the process of doing any of these
things our eyes will see things from a new perspective and we will notice things
we never did before. Nothing helps you to learn faster or better than
teaching. Nothing helps you to resist temptation more than helping someone else
resist temptation. Nothing gives you more strength than empowering another
person.
Ideally, believers should form a community where they encourage, teach and strengthen each other. Each can share in the area of his or her own strength and everyone can develop the best habits of others. The whole soon becomes greater than the sum of it’s parts.