Tom Peterson - The WillPower Advantage: Building Habits for Lasting Happiness

THE WILLPOWER ADVANTAGE

TOM PETERSON and RYAN HANNING

Building Habits for Lasting Happiness

IGNATIUS PRESS SAN FRANCISCO

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from Revised Standard Version of the BibleSecond Catholic Edition (Ignatius Edition) copyright 2006 by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

All papal quotations are taken from the Vatican website, www.vatican.va, by Libreria Editrice Vaticana. All rights reserved.

The WillPower Advantage is a trademark of Amen Alleluia, Inc. Amen Alleluia is a trademark of Amen Alleluia, Inc. The Spiritual Audit is a trademark of Amen Alleluia, Inc. Evangomercial is a trademark of Catholics Come Home, Inc. Catholics Come Home is a federally registered trademark of Catholics Come Home, Inc. Building Habits for Lasting Happiness and Unifying People of Good Will in Living Gods Will are service marks of Amen Alleluia, Inc.

Cover art by Holly Jonas

Cover design by Enrique J. Aguilar

2020 by Amen Alleluia, Inc., Roswell, Georgia
Published 2020 by Ignatius Press, San Francisco
All rights reserved
ISBN 978-1-62164-422-4 (PB)
ISBN 978-1-64229-140-7 (eBook)
Library of Congress Control Number 2020933464
Printed in the United States of America

Part 1
We Are Made for So Much More

Part 2
The Habits That Bring Life

Part 3
Your Action Plan with God

I came that they might have life, and have it more abundantly.

John 10:10

We all want more peace and joy in life, but the chaos of our busy world seems to impede our progress. All around us, self-discipline and the daily work ethic have been replaced by self-centeredness and around-the-clock personal entertainment. As a result, the willingness and the ability to make sacrifices for faith and family have become scarce, and so too have joy and peace. This book is a means of help and a call to action for fighting the behaviors that silently drain our happiness and steal our joy by enslaving us to things that can never fulfill us.

The WillPower Advantage is neither pop psychology nor watered-down Christianity; rather, it is a lifestyle reboot that can enable us to respond better to Christs call to follow Him. As disciples of Jesus, we can claim ourselves, our families, our cities, and our culture for Christ. To help us with this task, we have an invaluable resource in the age-old wisdom of the Church.

Three Important Questions

Imagine for a moment what life would be like if more Christians lived more authentically just a small portion of Jesus teaching and example. How would the world be different? What would change if we followed more closely Christs call to forgive others, feed the poor, and love our enemies? What would improve if we put into practice the virtuous actions that we all know we should do, but often fail to do? The truth is, when we do Gods will, we bring a little taste of heaven down to earth.

Consider the generosity and the kindness of the Good Samaritan (Lk 10:25-37); the compassion of the father toward the Prodigal Son (Lk 15:11-32); Jesus own example of humility in washing the apostles feet (Jn 13:1-17); His forgiveness of those who persecuted and killed Him (Lk 23:34); and, ultimately, His self-sacrificial love on the cross (Jn 15:13). This list could go on and on. The Gospels, and the entire narrative of salvation history throughout the Old and New Testaments, have compelled faithful followers to love and to serve God and others. This is the raison detre and the basic mission of the Church, as Pope Benedict XVI said: The Church is missionary by nature and her principal task is evangelization, which aims to proclaim and to witness to Christ and to promote his Gospel of peace and love in every environment and culture.

Praise God that many earnest Christians throughout history have indeed followed the Lord. But we all know that exemplary Christians have often been the exception and not the rule. As G. K. Chesterton said, The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.

Ask yourself these reflective questions:

1. How would the world be different if we followed Christ more completely?

2. What would change in my life if I followed Christs words more faithfully?
Would I have more or less peace and joy in my life?
Would I be more or less of a father, mother, brother, sister, daughter, son?
Would I be more or less free?
Would I be more or less happy?

The Christian faith has always been about accepting Gods loving gift of salvation, along with the forgiveness and the freedom that He won for us through the atoning sacrifice of Christ. However, accepting this gift means cooperating with Gods grace in order to become like Christ. Imagine a child receiving a wonderful gift wrapped in elegant paper and topped with an elaborate bow. The giver of the gift took care to wrap the package beautifully, indicating that what is inside is equally thoughtful and even more valuable. Now imagine the child never opening the present, never using it. Did the child receive the gift? Likewise, if we only admire the gift of our salvation from the outside and never open it, never put its power to use in our lives, have we accepted it? No, we havent. Furthermore, we have missed the point of receiving Gods gifts. The gifts of salvation and of faith are not just to be admired passively, but to be cultivated so that they can grow in our lives.

Lets go back to that second question: What would change in my life if I followed Christs words more faithfully? The answer is Everything! Every aspect of my life would be filled with both the struggle and the grace to grow into the person God made me to be. This really is good news. No, this is fantastic news! God has a plan for each one of us, and He wants us to become the person He created us to be. This is the same fantastic news that spread like a wildfire throughout the Roman Empire two thousand years ago and has been burning in the hearts of faithful Christians to this day.

These first two questions: How would the world be different if we followed Christs teaching more completely? and What would change in my life if I followed Christs words more faithfully? are naturally followed by a third question: Why dont we do something about it? Our inaction is not primarily due to a lack of knowledge, as we are aware of the problems and the actions we should be taking to address them. Nor is it due to a lack of desire, or will, for we all want to live better lives. Then whats the issue? College Football Hall of Fame Coach Bear Bryant of Alabama said, Its not the will to win that matters. Everyone has that. Its the will to prepare to win that matters . It is true in our careers, it is true in our personal lives, and it is true in matters of faith.

Gods grace and our cooperative diligence can work in unison to bring more blessings into our lives and the world around us. But first we must align our will with Gods perfect will for us, so that we can respond in love and truth to our own personal challenges, and those of the human family. The WillPower Advantage has been designed to help you prepare to winto prepare to win the spiritual war, to prepare to win the battle against bad habits. And it does this by helping you to conform your will to Gods will for your life.

Let us be honest, there are many good people in this world, and there are many devout Christians, but not every single person is striving to become the person God created him to be. Why? Because we all struggle with sin. Each one of us has fallen for the custom-made lies that trick us into believing that we are something less than we are. The Father of Lies, the devil, baits his hooks with custom-made fishing lures to snag us and lead us away from God. The truth is, we all have been created by God in His image (Gen 1:27). And each of us is a unique and unrepeatable individual destined by God to be conformed to the image of His Son (Rom 8:29). We were made for something more than enslavement to bad habits. We all know this deep down. It is worth saying again: we were made for something more . As Saint John Paul II said, We are not the sum of our weaknesses and failures ; we are the sum of the Fathers love for us and our real capacity to become the image of His Son.