The good, the bad, the ugly

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ,
set your hearts on things above,

where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 
Set your minds on things above,

not on earthly things. 
For you died, and your life is
now hidden with Christ in God. 

Colossians 3:1-3

Do you ever feel stuck?  I want to do better, but I continue to do what I do.  I want to be better, but I continue to be stuck in the same muck as yesterday, last week, two months ago, and sometimes worse.

How do we change?

Step 7 says that "We humbly ask Him [God] to remove our shortcomings."

The first time around the steps, I was pretty sure how this step worked.  I prayed and asked for help, but I researched the spiritual priniciple that I could practice instead of the defect and carefully attempted to choose my responses.  This time, I have a different take.  Surrendering, yet a little more, that I cannot fix me, but instead I must let God change me.  I have good intentions but seem to never quite get it.  Isn't this simply accepting the nature of sin-that we miss the mark?  Sin isn't that we intentionally hurt God and others, but often that we just can't help it.

It would be so much easier to rely on myself, but it wouldn't get me very far.  In fact, it is that selfish and insecure ideal that seem to keep me stuck.  When I trust that God is at work, and He always seems to be, and remember that God loves me more than I love myself, which surely is the case, it amazes me how much easier things go.

When I make God my goal and my motive, not to look good or to even be good, my whole perspective changes.  I do not need to worry or become frustrated or hurried.  He is in it all, the "good," the "bad," the "ugly."