I believe in the 21 day rule. I learned this rule from a hypnotist I had worked for many years ago. As a very young man I was not a believer (In anything!) and I was hired to document the events of several people that had encountered so called past lives while under hypnosis. This proved to be very interesting as I spent great amounts of time and energy trying to disprove those events. I will not go into all of that right now except to explain the connection to God in all of this and how this 21 day rule contributes to each of our world building abilities.

If you are addicted to any type of behavior, alcohol, drugs, etc this may help you to better understand what causes that addiction. Doctors have studied the human mind and body for centuries finding that God is indeed an awesome, supremely intelligent, Creator. He has built each of us so finely tuned and balanced that just a little change in our thoughts or habits sometimes produce incredible results in our overall person. I heard it once said that just one nickels worth of iodine can mean the difference between you and a completely mentally disabled individual. That's not much of a difference! There is no way you can convince me that God has built us as anything less than fine tuned.

Now back to the 21 day rule. I want to take a common addiction many of us face on a daily basis. Caffeine is the most common addiction in our society today.  Although it is considered to be relatively harmless, it still is an addiction with negative impacts on those who indulge in the use of it. Many people simply can not get started into their day unless they have had their cup of coffee in the morning.

Caffeine is a drug that causes an increase in metabolic rate of the individual using it. If large amount of caffeine are used repeatedly then the user becomes addicted to the drug and find they are unable to function properly without its use. Now I want you to understand that this article is not an attempt by me to get all of you to stop drinking coffee. What this is about is how something like caffeine becomes an addiction and what in the world the 21 day rule is.  Well my friends it has to do with God and His creation.

Go figure! When God created man He gave him everything he needed to function, be happy, and prosper. Starting with Adam man started to take things into his own hands and control the world in which he lived. Have you ever wondered why God did not become exceedingly angry with Adam and destroyed him at the first sin? It was because God created man with the ability to make choices in our own lives. This is the case still today. We all can see everyday how people around us make incredibly bad choices and just move on in life without a care. When we do that we sometimes think there will be no accountability or we somehow have gotten away with something but that is not true at all.

Now let's go back to the subject of caffeine. It is not considered a sin to drink coffee. Why not? It is a drug that alters our natural functions. It is addictive which takes the control over our bodies out of our own hands. Medical professionals have said that caffeine is much more harmful and causes more long lasting damage then the drug, marijuana. Among most Christian circles smoking marijuana is a sin. Why marijuana is a sin but caffeine is not? It could be because both Moses and Jesus instructed the believers to follow the laws of the land. For example; marijuana is not legal caffeine is legal! The same is true for our society, we as Christians are instructed to follow Christ and use His teaching as an example to live by. If we do not we can find ourselves outside of Gods will for our lives. What is the fruit of that choice?

          As I said before God had given mankind everything we need to be happy, productive, and prosperous. Then along the way we start making choices. I have used coffee because it is not a controversial example. When we use caffeine to start our day and then some of us have to use caffeine to make it to the end of our day we change some of the natural process in our brains.  The natural process is for our brains to work together with our bodies in harmony. Upon arising in the morning our brains automatically release its own chemical into our muscles to "wake us up" and get us along the way. When we start introducing outside chemicals to do the same job our brains were designed to do then the brain shuts off the release of that chemical. If we stop introducing our own chemicals to start us in the morning it usually takes 21 days for the brain to get back to 100 % of its capacity. Then it will start to do the job God designed it to do in the first place. This is best because it is natural and does not destroy the central nervous system  or raise blood pressure, etc.

          As I think on this I can imagine God talking to us saying "If your going to handle waking yourself in the morning, why should I?"   How many other areas of our lives can we apply that question to?

Until Later, Dave