Atomic Habits Can Become Atomic Bombs

Tiny choices can destroy our lives.

“Ugh. Not again.” That’s what I murmured under my breath as I looked at the scale and saw that I’d gained three pounds since late last week. I knew it was coming, too. We had a family get-together with “finger foods,” and I absentmindedly ate tortilla chips, creamy homemade cheese dip, chemical-free chocolate chip cookies, and a platter of other tasty but unhealthy foods. Little by little, I consumed 100 to 300 portions of calories throughout the day until I reached 3,000 or more calories.

Imagine doing this every day for a year. If my body’s caloric need is 2,000 calories per day, and I eat 1,000 to 1,500 extra calories, that adds up to 550,000 extra calories per year. While I don’t eat like that every day, even an extra 250 calories (a few handfuls of M&Ms or Cheez-Its) would mean an additional 91,000 calories over the year. 250 calories doesn’t seem like much, but 91,000 is massive. While I don’t fully trust the math, that adds up to an extra 12 pounds per year. I’ve certainly seen my weight fluctuate by 5 to 10 pounds in a year. That’s scary.

Small Habits, Big Consequences
Atoms are tiny, but atomic bombs make massive impacts. So it is with our habits. The smallest habits can bring great catastrophes or great gains. James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, says it this way: “You should be far more concerned with your current trajectory than with your current results.” In other words, where are your habits leading you?

The way we eat can have significant long-term impacts on our physical, mental, and emotional health. Imagine how our spiritual health is impacted by small habits. A few lustful glances, an impure thought, and some unrepentant anger every day, and we are on the path to patterns of sin, and perhaps a spiritual crisis. Even if we don’t have a huge fall into some major public sin that ruins our reputation, we may just be drifting, drifting slowly away from Christ. Just 5 minutes of compromise every day adds up to nearly a work week’s worth of choosing sin.

Habits for God
Let’s imagine a better way forward. What if we stole 15 minutes per day from our habitual phone use and gave it to God? Those 15 minutes would not only be more fruitful, but they’d also bring us closer to God. He’s not adding up the minutes to make sure we hit a certain amount. But if eternal life is to know God (John 17:3), then we would certainly benefit from spending more time with Him. If we want to suffer with bold confidence and say, “I know whom I have believed,” we must spend time getting to know the Lord we believe in. In other words, small habits of reading, praying, meditating, or conversing about the gospel could pay great spiritual dividends over time.

“Yes. I’ve done it again!” I want to be able to utter these words after fighting hard to stick to healthy eating habits over the long haul. I also want to say, “Lord, thank you for that truth you revealed to me again!” after spending 10-15 minutes reading and meditating on His Word. Just as we don’t drift toward weight loss and a healthy body, neither will we grow in our faith simply by waking up and doing what we naturally do. We also can’t treat spiritual disciplines and habits like we do our diet and exercise. We can’t willpower or muscle our way to deeper faith. We must submit our souls to the Spirit of Christ and watch for Him to do spiritual work in us (Rom. 12:2).

How are tiny habits impacting your life? With the help of the Holy Spirit, our hearts can be trained to love God. Our habits will follow our hearts and help shape our hearts to be more Christlike!


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