mostly, it's a matter of needing ritual to stay on track. I do better with a schedule, with instruction/guidance/reminders. I have a hard time with the whole "self-starting" thing. Even in sports, if I don't have a coach or instructor or set schedule/routine, I get lazy and slack off. The structure of regular worship services, the nudge of clergy (and I have been very blessed with very good clergy in my life) reminding me of the objective, etc., help keep me on track. I'm pretty good at finding ways to apply the Golden Rule, it's reminding myself I should be aiming for that instead of getting caught up in the minutae of daily life that gets tricky for me.

The imagery and examples found in the gospels remind me to keep thinking outside the box, to look for "what works for this situation?" not "what are the laws/rules/standards I'm used to?" especially when presented by educated theologians/biblical scholars who can emphasize the drastic departure from "normal" that Christ's behaviors were in his time/culture. I am good enough with the idea that parables were not meant to be taken literally (and many of the recountings of Chrsit's actions are parables in themselves) that I can use them as object lessons without getting bogged down in literalism. If the vocabulary/imagery is distracting for you, I highly endorse finding other vocab/imagery that helps focus you instead.