Some time ago, I came across (what was/is for me at the time) a new term: "Spiritual Habituation."   Now, the idea or concept of "habituation" in general is this: when a new object or stimuli is introduced to our environment, we are intensely aware of it - but it's an awareness that fades over time.  Think in terms of that sign you go by every day while driving down the highway or walking through the hallway at work: at first, its message is new and noticeable - but as days turn into weeks that same sign no longer catches your attention.

John Ortberg in his book, God Is Closer than You Think, notes that spiritual habituation is the tendency to "simply drift into acceptance of life in spiritual maintenance mode."  Our response to this drift is the inclination to rationalize it away because, we tell ourselves, "Well, I'm not involved in any major scandalous sin.  I haven't done anything to jeopardize my getting into heaven.  So, I'm doing okay."  And as we go through this process of spiritual habituation we lose sight of the fact that Jesus never said, "I have come that you might do okay."  You see, in Jesus, okay is NOT okay.  He came that we "might have life, and might have it abundantly."  Spiritual habituation is the drift into spiritual maintenance mode - and that most definitely is not life abundant.

Another way to look at this is that many (most?) of us suffer from a kind of spiritual attention deficit disorder that God must break through in order to, well, get through to us.  Ortberg writes, "When life is on spiritual autopilot, rivers of living water do not flow through it with energy and joy."  In fact, the exact opposite is often the case; and our life tends to look something like this...

  ► I yell at my children unnecessarily.
  ►  I worry too much about money, or my job - or    my neighbor's money and job.
  ► I get jealous of people who are more
   successful or attractive than I am.
  ► I find myself acting deceptively toward others.
  ►  I pass judgment on people, often times
   because I am envious toward them.

Spiritual habituation is, in many ways, more dangerous than spiritual depravity.  Why?  Because its onset can be so subtle, so gradual we never really notice its existence