For several decades the field of positive psychology has flourished.  With a broad focus, this relatively new area of study explores such topics as resiliency, how to thrive as a person, how to be happy, how to confront helplessness, how to overcome, well being, optimism, and mental and physical health, to name just a few.  Positive psychology is not at all about hedonism. Quite the contrary and in many ways this new field of study has much to offer people of faith.

Two researches, Santos and Gendler, have explored causes of human behavior.  While certainly countless people have looked at such causes for a long long time, their approach has been a bit unique.  They came up with the idea of the GI Joe Fallacy. In the 1980’s the cartoon GI Joe was popular. At the end of each show there was a message to viewers.  The goal was to offer people useful life tips. When the message concluded, there was another that said, “Now you know. And knowing is half the battle.”

Taking this idea, Santos and Gendler set out to explore how powerful knowledge alone is in affecting behavior and decision making.  Here is one thing they write about the findings in this research area.

“The lesson of much contemporary research in judgment and decision-making is that knowledge— at least in the form of our consciously accessible representation of a situation—is rarely the central factor controlling our behavior. The real power of online behavioral control comes not from knowledge, but from things like situation selection, habit formation, and emotion regulation. This is a lesson that therapy has taken to heart, but one that “pure science” continues to neglect.”

Simply stated, simply knowing something does not necessarily change attitudes, ways of thinking or the actions we take.  And it is here, I believe, this scientific field has much to offer people of faith. Knowing about God. Knowing the stories of Jesus.  Knowing about the cross and resurrection. Knowing that God is love and love is the bottom line. Knowing any of these things alone does not mean we live differently or make different choices based on this knowledge.  

What is far more important are the choices we make, the habits we intentionally form, the actions we practice, and the thoughts we allow to inform our lives.  While there is much more to this whole idea, the key take away for me is that simply knowing about Jesus and knowing what Jesus expects, alone will have little if any impact on how I live and the choices I make.  

Our faith life is not a head game or about head knowledge or about knowing the right thing, it all comes down to how we choose to live, think, act, and react and to what extent such things are in alignment with our faith.  The good news is that God has given us free will be be able to make such choices.