Step 3

Maybe this is a helpful picture: Think of AHA as a door that swings on three hinges. The first hinge is a sudden awakening. The second hinge is brutal honesty. The third and final hinge is immediate action.

In Jesus’s parable of the prodigal son, there’s a simple phrase that changes the story: “So he got up …” (Luke 15:20).

The Prodigal Son took immediate action. He saw that it was time to get up. It was time to do something. And unless our stories read, “So he got up” or “So she got up,” then nothing really changes. But this is where AHA stalls out for so many of us. We have an awakening moment. We even find the strength to be brutally honest. But we never get around to actually doing anything different. We spend much of our lives stuck between honesty and action.—AHA Student Edition electronic edition

<idle musing>
As I've said before, this 3-step view lines up with the reality that I've seen in dealing with people. The second step is difficult, but the third step seems to be the real stumbling block...If you can get people to actually act on the conviction that God placed on their hearts, most of the time the awakening sticks.

Lord, soften our hearts; enable us to be honest with ourselves and others. And then don't guve us reast until we act on what you have laid on our hearts!
</idle musing>