Impact

Ultra-Christianity: Part 6 – Discipline

For anyone to even make it to the starting line of an ultra-marathon race takes tremendous effort and discipline.   The discipline to rise up before dawn to train, and then work a full day’s work, while never losing site of the family and ministry needs.   Discipline to follow the training schedule carefully set forth and designed for that particular upcoming race.  Discipline not to give up when facing adversity and obstacles, both large and small, that may threaten your objectives and goals.  Does the description of this type of discipline sound familiar? It should if you are a follower of Christ.

To follow Christ, you must have the discipline comparable to that of an athlete, and in this case, an ultra-marathoner.  You need to have the discipline to walk in wisdom and to avoid the alternative path of destruction.

“Hear, my son, and receive my sayings,

And the years of your life will be many.

I have taught you in the way of wisdom;

I have led you in the right paths.

When you walk, your steps will not be hindered

And when you run, you will not stumble.”

 – Prov. 4:10-12

For anyone to even make it to the starting line of an ultra-marathon race takes tremendous effort and discipline.   The discipline to rise up before dawn to train, and then work a full day’s work, while never losing site of the family and ministry needs.   Discipline to follow the training schedule carefully set forth and designed for that particular upcoming race.  Discipline not to give up when facing adversity and obstacles, both large and small, that may threaten your objectives and goals.  Does the description of this type of discipline sound familiar? It should if you are a follower of Christ.

To follow Christ, you must have the discipline comparable to that of an athlete, and in this case, an ultra-marathoner.  You need to have the discipline to walk in wisdom and to avoid the alternative path of destruction.

“Hear, my son, and receive my sayings,

And the years of your life will be many.

I have taught you in the way of wisdom;

I have led you in the right paths.

When you walk, your steps will not be hindered

And when you run, you will not stumble.”

 – Prov. 4:10-12

When speaking of discipline, at least two types come to mind.  One type is external and the other is internal.  External discipline is probably more familiar and more widely recognized.  It is described as follows:

     – to chasten or reprimand,

     – correction,

     – an instrument of punishment,

     – teaching to act in accordance with rules,

     – punishment inflicted by way of correction and training,

     – behavior in accord with rules of conduct,

     – a set or system of rules and regulations.

The Bible has a lot to say about “being disciplined” or “chastened”, particularly by God (Heb. 12:7). However, there is another type of discipline that is more of the “internal” type and can be described as:

     – restraint, control, diligence,

     – to train by instruction and exercise,

     – faithful to what was taught,

     – to follow a particular code of conduct or "order",

     – activity, exercise, or a regimen that develops or improves a skill,

     – behavior and order maintained by training and control,

     – to bring to a state of order and obedience by training and control.

Although both types of discipline are present in an obedient lifestyle, this blog post will concentrate on the latter.  One should be disciplined in many areas of one’s life, even with the small things.  Actually, it’s being faithful in the small things that it shows that you have the capacity to be faithful in the larger things.

“He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much.”  – Luke 16:10

When I first started training, my daily runs were pretty short.  Not the kind of miles one would think was needed to run an Ultra.  But I needed to be disciplined to my training plan which called for a slow buildup of miles over several months, which ended in very long runs on Saturdays leading up to the race.  If I tried to build up too fast, it could have caused an injury.  I only had five months to prepare, so little time could be lost to injury or insufficient, unwise training. Likewise, to be a Christ follower, we must be faithful in the small things before He can give us the chance to be faithful in the larger things.  We must finish what we begin, giving it our best effort.  And we should not run away from the hard things that face us.  We must live every aspect of our lives “to the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31).

As we see in other areas of life, often we find it difficult to follow what we know is the right way or correct course of action (Rom. 7:15). To raise children in the way they should go (Prov. 22:6); to love your wife as Christ loved the church (Eph. 5:25);  to study and learn God’s Word (Psa. 119:4); to guard our own heart’s with diligence (Prov. 4:23); to guard you mouth (Prov. 13:3), to walk worthy of the calling (Eph. 4:1); to rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks (1 The. 5:16), all of these and much more takes more than just good intentions, it takes purposeful, prayerful, disciplined, daily decision to lean and rely on God.  In doing so, sometimes we might not like what we are going through and we may find it difficult to persevere.   We need the discipline to do things even if we do not want to do them, to achieve the Godly results that we believe in. In running, this could be shown when a runner, who wants to achieve the result of a good finish, may not even want to get out of bed at 6am Sat. morning and run 20-30 miles. The runner would probably much rather stay in bed, rest from a long week of work and training.  However, to accomplish the goal, the runner “will” get up, get dressed, eat, stretch, and start the training run, regardless of how he feels, regardless of what the temperature is outside, regardless of what others may say, etc. He knows without this discipline, he will not be able to achieve his goal.

Another principle that I found in this process, is that it takes discipline to experience discipline. A runner needs discipline to even start to run; then the running process builds up discipline to run even more.  There is something about act of feeling every step, as each foot hits the ground, for miles upon miles for days upon days for years upon years.  Same is so in your spiritual life. A high level of discipline is required.  The discipline to pray, to have daily quiet time, to read and examine the Scriptures, to study the Bible, to memorize Bible verses, and for those who are called to teach, to properly prepare for the lesson.  The very heart-filled act of daily, continued spiritual discipline, prayer after prayer, verse after verse, daily seeking God and waiting on Him, caring and helping others day after day; forms you closer and closer to the character of Christ.  This is not to say by just going through the motions will produce spiritual results, but by going through them with all your “heart”, “mind” ,and “soul”, with a clean heart (Psa. 51:10), will.  I have seen and experienced great and mighty things from God through the self-sacrificing prayers of dedicated, disciplined, prayer warriors and those who rely, depend, and put their trust in God.

“The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.”  – James 5:16

“But He hears the prayer of the righteous.” – Prov. 15:29

Last blog post, we discussed what it means to be committed.  How we must be committed to God and His Word.  My observation is that it takes discipline of both kinds described above, to be committed at that level.  Being open to the discipline of God and His Word in your life and to have the discipline to choose to follow what was learned in your Christian walk.  This is another characteristic of Ultra-Christianity.

 

Questions on Discipline:

1)      Which type of discipline are you more familiar with in your life?

2)      What areas of your life (non-spiritual) do you feel you need more discipline?

3)      What areas of your spiritual life do you feel you need more discipline?

4)      What is keeping you from being more disciplined in your spiritual life?

5)      Right now, are you “not faithful” with any small things that God has given you?

6)      Do you have examples in your life where you were faithful with the small things and then later faithful with the larger things?

7)      Have you asked God to help you be more disciplined in your life, for His Glory?

2 Comments

  • Mandy Myungok Garrett

    re: discipline

    Another good one! I am really encouraged and I think this blog will encourage other Jesus followers to go for it and they can do it by relying and trusting God like you said.

  • Michael Garrett

    Awesome

    I love reading how you compare running to being a Christian. After all Paul said it was a race. Run Well!!