Anyone who has spent 5 minutes in a corporate setting has had to call the “help desk” for computer issues. And anyone who has had to call the “help desk” for computer issues can predict with 100 percent accuracy the very first thing the “help desk” will ask you, no matter what issue you are trying to fix. Say it with me…Have you tried rebooting?

As much as I make fun of “help desks” the whole rebooting thing is actually pretty good advice. Sometimes it is needed in our spiritual walk as well.  Sometimes disruptive change is required to force us from deeply dug ruts. Sometimes we just need to reset and start over. Clean the system and power back up. Computers usually respond well to the rebooting process. They run better, faster, etc. It only stands to reason that we function more optimally as well when we press the restart button on our walk. I know it has worked well for me. It helps us break free from the same old infinite and repetitive loop of failure. A clean slate can be  an inspiring, motivating thing.

Sometimes, instead of rebooting (or in addition to it), we need to rewire. Change the circuitry inside our machine to bypass our transgressions.

In one of Aesop’s Fables (The Fox and the Lion), the moral of the story is that “acquaintance with evil blinds us to its dangers. ” We grow numb to the action. It hurts less, carries less guilt, generates less remorse, every time we repeat the same sin. We also begin to distance ourselves from the consequences. We begin to dismiss the odds of serious repercussions occurring as a result of our actions. We develop a habit, form an allegiance, firmly attach the vice to our daily lives. After a while, we are incapable of thinking or acting differently.

The psychological term neuroplasticity suggests that, even as adults, learning and re-wiring of the brain can happen through changes in the strength of connections, by adding or removing connections or by adding new cells. This is great news because it means we have an innate ability to literally change our minds. Not suggesting it is easy, but if we can reconfigure our thoughts to join our actions more closely to their potential consequences and to alter the auto pilot nature of sin, we greatly increase our chances of replacing the habits of worldly man with the pursuits of a Godly one.

So reboot, rewire, restart. There is great power in the re.