Practicing Jesus

Part 8, "When X, Do Y."

Last post in this series.

As I described in the last post, in Stranger God I unpacked the Little Way of Thérèse of Lisieux as practices I called Seeing, Stopping, and Approaching. The focus of Stranger God was upon forming us into people of hospitality and welcome. So the practices of Seeing, Stopping, and Approaching were selected and described for that specific spiritual formation outcome.

But after the publication of Stranger God I wanted to find a way of describing the Little Way that had broader applications. For example, how would you describe the Little Way as a practice that forms in us the fruit of the Spirit, virtues like kindness, patience, gentleness, joy, peace, and self-control? 

After a search of the psychological literature, I eventually discovered the research on what are called "implementation intentions." 

When it comes to behavior change, of any sort, we all have goal intentions. "I want X." Every New Year's resolution is a goal intention of this sort. I want to exercise more. I want to pray more. I want to stop smoking. I want to start a garden. I want to learn how to play the guitar. I want to write a novel. I want to lose twenty pounds. 

We make goal intentions all the time. We want many things. But as we all know, by February our New Year's resolutions are often a long list of failures. We need something more effective than goal setting. 

This same issue plagues our spiritual formation efforts. We all want to be more Christlike. I want to be more kind and patient. I want many things when it comes to my spiritual life. But like my New Year's resolutions, these spiritual goals are easily stated but hard to actualize.

Enter the implementation intention. 

An implementation intention is specific sort of goal setting that has two parts. The first part identifies a situational context. A location, time or triggering event/stimulus. The second part specifies a goal-directed behavior, something that you will do that will move you closer toward your aspirational goal. Implementation intentions have a "When X, Do Y" logic. When I'm in this situation, then I will perform this action. 

Implementation intentions work. Research has shown that implementation intentions are effective in changing a wide range of behaviors. Because of this, implementation intentions feature prominently in self-help books like the best-selling Atomic Habits.

The Little Way of Thérèse of Lisieux can be described as an implementation intention, an implementation intention for practicing Jesus, an implementation intention for forming the fruit of the Spirit. 

To see this, let's revisit Thérèse's stories of practicing her "little way." When Thérèse had free time she committed to talking to the sisters who were being ignored. When X, Do Y. When Thérèse saw a sister she wanted to avoid approaching, she committed to not detouring around her. When X, Do Y. And finally, when Thérèse was irritated during prayer time by a sister making a noise, she committed to praying a prayer of peace over that noise. When X, Do Y. In every story describing the practice of her "little way" in Story of a Soul, Thérèse describes specific situations ("When X...") and her behavioral commitments in responding to those situations ("...Do Y."). Thérèse didn't just express goal intentions in her memoir ("I want to be kinder."), she described implementation intentions, actual behaviors that directly practiced virtues in daily interpersonal situations. 

In short, the Little Way of Thérèse of Lisieux can be described as an effective way of "practicing Jesus," as an implementation intention directed at forming in us the fruit of the Spirit. This practice is "the missing spiritual discipline" we've been searching for: an implementation intention focused upon a fruit of the Spirit, a practice that is daily, situational, direct and interpersonal. Concretely, if you want, for example, to be more kind, you need to create an implementation intention to practice kindness. Identify where in your life you experience failures of kindness. What is the location, time or trigger? Having identified your "When X" go on to specify what action you will take in that situation. Will you pause and take breath? Smile? Say a quick prayer? Say something empathetic? This is your "Do Y." With the implementation intention in hand you can begin to "practice Jesus." Every day. You now have a way of getting in your 10,000 hours of practice. 

To conclude, I suspect that all intellectuals have their moments of vanity. We are convinced that if people would just listen to our brilliant ideas the world would be so much better off. Everyone needs to read my book or journal article! 

This series, dear reader, is my moment of vanity. 

In my opinion, there is a vast and gaping hole in our spiritual formation efforts. As we all know, the church is not forming her people very well, if at all. What we are missing is a spiritual discipline that helps us "practice Jesus." A practice that is daily, situational, direct and interpersonal. This "missing spiritual discipline" is the Little Way of Thérèse of Lisieux, described here as implementation intentions aimed at forming in us the fruit of the Spirit. Call me vain, but if churches committed to this practice I really do think it could change the world. 

And if not the world, I'll settle for it changing me.