Traditionally Dysfunctional

Functional fixedness is a cognitive bias that limits a person to using an object only in the way it is traditionally used.


I stumbled across this term a while back while reading a book called "Drive" by Dan Pink (referred to me by @ClarenceStowers of theurbanpastor.com). Immediately I was intrigued. 


Originating from a movement in psychology, functional fixedness is defined as a "mental block against using an object in a new way that is required to solve a problem." This fascinates me because an I meditate on that thought, I can look back in time and think of countless instances in which I've had the solution to a problem right before my eyes, but was so fixed on the traditional use of the object that it left me in a state of brokenness. 


Isn't it amazing how tradition...the handing down of our beliefs and customs...the inheritance of the way we think and act...can constrain us to the point of dysfunction?! We've got to get to the point where we are able to see things beyond what we know them to be. This becomes simple when you have faith, because faith is not believing what you see. Faith is seeing what you believe. When we have faith in God, and see things according to His Word, dysfunction will become disabled and we will be able to live the way God intended for us to live.


Now the just shall live by faith: (Hebrews 10:38a)


Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. (Hebrew 11:1)


But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. (Hebrews 11:6)