Our Stories
Discipline
By Aaron Soderlund | posted 10/15/2009
"Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body." (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)
I'm not the best when it comes to discipline. And why is it that the things that are hard to stay disciplined on are usually the things that keep you the most healthy. It's like my brain and body want to keep me out of shape, physically, spiritually, relationally, mentally, etc. It's a constant struggle to do what actually will make me feel better. Is it just that being lazy or eating terrible food makes me feel so much better? Nope. Because that doesn't usually happen.
Then there are those people that are completely disciplined and they're totally annoying. But why are they annoying? Because secretly, maybe even not secretly, I'm actually jealous of their ability to stay focused and disciplined in what they are doing. I'm not that different from them, am I?
I'm learning that it's not really about me not being a disciplined person. It's about me not being trained to be disciplined in each of these areas. And I get in these moods, or phases, where I desperately want to be disciplined so I try and exercise, eat better, get up earlier, read my Bible, and everything else all at once. I slip on one thing, then another, and after a week or so, I'm discouraged at my inability to complete these disciplines, so I scrap them all and go back to my normal undisciplined life - which is essentially slowly digging myself a bigger hole to climb out of.
Doug preached about spiritual disciplines recently and I think he was right on the money when he said it's all about training. It's not that some people are good at it and I'm not. It's all about setting realistic goals and picking one thing to focus on and training myself in that one area.
One definition of Discipline is: "To bring a state of order and obedience by training and control."
Whether that's reading my Bible more or just deciding not to eat at Red Robin for lunch every day. One small change, over and over again. Master it. Then move on. Add another. I don't have to do it all at once. If I do, I'll realistically fail almost before I even start.
Jesus doesn't ask me to be perfect. I can't be perfect. Even those annoying people that seem to be disciplined in all areas of their lives aren't perfect. But I can continue to work on different areas of my life as I strive to be more and more like Him. I could spend 10 minutes with Him each morning. I could bring my lunch two more days each week. I could commit to tithing whether or not I get paid each month. I could start by running around the block just once each morning. I could pray in the car instead of listening to sports-radio. I could watch one less TV show each week and spend that time talking with my wife.
There are so many little things that can be changed, one little thing at a time. One little victory at a time. Little victory after little victory begin to make a big victory and a healthier person spiritually, physically, emotionally, relationally, and just as a whole.
While I probably won't be able to tackle all of those ideas up there at once, those are some of things that I've been thinking about as I continue to work on my spiritual disciplines and living my life with intention.
What discipline can you be working on this week? Spiritual or in general?
Aaron can be reached via email here.
