Renovation of the Heart

AFTER DALLAS WILLARD · RENOVATION OF THE HEART
Not better behaviour but a new character: the six dimensions of a person, the VIM model, and realistic expectations of a change that takes years.

Character, not behaviour

Most attempts at change aim at behaviour. Willard argues that this only steers things in the short run — because behaviour grows out of what a person is. The goal of renovation is not better performance but a new character: an obedience that has become natural and no longer hurts.

Have you ever tried to quit something by sheer resolve? It lasts until the first hard evening. Willard’s question isn’t “how do I force myself”, but “what is it in me that makes me want it at all”.

Character is what I do when I am not deciding.

That is why renovation cannot be managed at the last link in the chain — at the deed. It has to reach further back: to what I let into my head, to what I long for, and to what my body has been trained to do.

“Grace is not opposed to effort, it is opposed to earning.”

Dallas Willard

thought

idea, information

image

and desire

consent

will

deed

habit

the body remembers

character

= what I do
when I am not deciding

RENOVATION ENTERS THE CIRCLE

Where I can
step in

1at the thought — What I let into my head. The most accessible spot in the whole circle: I choose the content myself — Scripture instead of scrolling, silence instead of noise.

2at the will’s consent — The one moment when I am genuinely free. This is where it is decided whether a desire gets a body — and it is a moment, not an hour.

3at habit and the body — You don’t cancel a habit by deciding, only by retraining. Hence the disciplines: I train when nothing is at stake, so that I hold up when something is.

The circle turns by itself. That is why it makes no sense to start fighting only at the deed — that is where there is least freedom.

Where renovation happens

Willard divided a person into six dimensions and gave each one its own chapter. This is not psychology on paper — it is a list of the places where renovation has to happen, and a diagnosis of what happens when one of them is skipped.

Interactive

1 · 2

will

heart · spirit
“I’ll get my way”

thinking

feeling

body

social relationships

soul

The soul (6) holds the other dimensions together in one single life — which is why it is drawn as the thing that embraces everything.

DALLAS WILLARD · RENOVATION OF THE HEART

The six dimensions of a person

A person is not made up of behaviour alone. We are thinking, feeling, will, body, relationships — and a soul that holds it all together. Renovation happens in each dimension separately; whatever you skip goes on ruling you.

1. thinkingthe ideas and images that hold me

2. feelingemotion as a servant, not a master

3. will · heart · spiritthe executive centre of a person

4. bodywhere habit lives

5. social relationshipsattack and withdrawal

6. soulwhat holds the whole together

→ click any dimension: what is broken and what renovation means

What makes it move

Willard’s VIM model: vision, intention, means. Three parts in a fixed order — and if one is missing, the whole movement stops. Most pious resolutions die because people jump straight to the means.

VVision

Do I see that it is possible — and that it is worth it?

A living picture of life in the kingdom of God: this is what it could look like in my case. Without a vision, effort is just duty — and duty burns out.

IIntention

Have I actually decided, or would I just like to?

A real decision, not a wish. Willard: you recognise a decision by the fact that it shows up in your calendar and in your money — otherwise it was only a moment of feeling moved.

MMeans

What exactly am I going to do today to make it happen?

Practices that get me where sheer effort cannot take me: the disciplines, fellowship, time, the body. Means without vision and intention are drudgery; with them they are training.

WHEN ONE PART IS MISSING

Vision missing✕I try out of duty and out of fear. It lasts a few weeks and then comes burnout or defiance.

Intention missing✕I have lovely plans, notes from books — and nothing changes. “I’d like to” is not a decision.

Means missing✕I really do want it — but I do nothing that leads there. All that is left is self-blame.

VIM — Latin for “force”. The order is not accidental: vision carries the intention, the intention chooses the means.

THE FIRST POISON

Attack

I hurt people to come out on top: irony, shouting, silence as a weapon, gossip. The aim is to make the other person smaller.

THE SECOND POISON

Downloads

I disappear so that nobody can hurt me: being unavailable, pretending, “I’m fine”. The aim is not to be seen.

RENOVATION

Stay and don’t wound

Being close without attacking and being seen without a mask. “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.” (Eph 5:21)

The two poisons of relationships

Relationships are one of the six dimensions — and Willard does not go easy on them. Broken relationships, he says, work in two ways: attack and withdrawal. Most people have their favourite.

Both have the same aim: not to be vulnerable. And both kill the one thing that can carry renovation — being close and being seen.

Try it on yourself: when you are afraid in a conflict, do you attack or do you disappear? That move is your pattern. And that is exactly where renovation begins.

How to start

One concrete step into each dimension — and with it what you actually get out of it. Don’t start with all six; take the one where your conscience pricked you first.

thinking

Pick one passage and learn it by heart — Col 3:1–17, say. And cut out one source of images that shapes you the most.

The Spirit has something to speak from. Your head stops living off whatever it saw last.

feeling

Name the emotion out loud (“I’m scared”, “I’m angry”) and once a day don’t obey it. Cultivate gratitude as training, not as a mood.

Emotion stays a servant. You stop being steerable by your mood.

will

One deliberate “yes” to God against yourself every day, in something small: give way, let the other have the last word, leave an argument unfinished.

The will gets used to “not me, but you” — and one day it will hold in the big things too.

body

Start with whatever is most neglected: sleep, food, walking, solitude, fasting. The body changes through habit, not through resolutions.

Habit changes the body sooner than a decision does — and then the body can carry the rest.

relationships

One conversation you have been avoiding. Without attacking and without leaving: tell the truth and stay in the room.

Relationships can carry the truth. The loneliness in which nothing can grow disappears.

soul

One day a week with no performance. Silence that solves nothing. And don’t turn it into another project.

Life stops being a collection of pieces that contradict one another.

What to expect

Willard gives realistic expectations a chapter of their own — because most people give up not because it is hard but because they misjudged it.

It is slow. Renovation runs in years, not weeks. Anyone waiting for a breakthrough gives up after a month — and concludes that it doesn’t work.

It won’t go in a straight line. There will be slumps. A slump is not proof of failure, it is information about where you are. Go back to the steps, not to the reproaches.

You can't do it solo. You need people who see what you can't see in yourself — and who will tell you. Without them, renovation turns into self-deception.

It isn't your achievement. It's God's work, and you can step into it. Effort yes, merit no — otherwise all you get is a pious version of the old self.

“Being formed spiritually in Christ is a process in which the innermost part of a person comes to bear the character of Christ himself.”

Dallas Willard: Renovation of the Heart

So the goal isn't a person with good self-control, but a person from whom good simply flows. Willard describes someone who doesn't lie — not because they keep watch over themselves, but because there is nothing left in them that would want to lie.

“Feeling is an excellent servant and a terrible master.”

Dallas Willard: Renovation of the Heart

Willard never promises speed. He promises direction: every dimension of a person can be taken seriously, and God stays in play in all of them. Renovation of the Heart is a training plan, not a motivational talk.

Sources

Dallas Willard: Renovation of the Heart — the six dimensions of a person, the VIM model, the two poisons of relationships, realistic expectations

Dallas Willard: The Divine Conspiracy — character as the goal of discipleship and a “curriculum for Christlikeness”

Scripture — Rom 12:1–2 · Col 3:1–17 · Gal 5:22–23 · Eph 5:21 · Matt 22:37

Related pages — Map of the disciplines (the means) · The kingdom of God (the vision) · Hearing God