Week 33 Sunday
Week 33 Sunday
Discipline Your Courage
Joshua 1:6-9
We continue into this week our emphasis of the Way as the way of discipline. Some would say that “salvation is by character.” We do not accept that. Salvation is by grace through faith—salvation is by Christ. It is a gift. But if it is a gift, it is also a growth, a growth in character. And character is developed through discipline.
That leads us to this step:
(3) Discipline your courage. Every time you refuse to face up to life and its problems, you weaken your character. Character needs courage to make it real character. If we have no courage, we are what Nietzsche called “moral cows” in our “plump comfortableness.”* Present-day civilization is suffering from a lack of moral courage. So many people are in the inglorious business of keeping their heads stuck in. If you do that long enough, there won’t be an idea left in that head when you do get it out. We are in the process of being standardized morally, and at a very low level. “Everybody does it” is the new moral code to which we bow and that we obey. A woman was losing her husband’s affections over a lot of little things, among them, his dislike for highly painted fingernails. When a counselor advised her to let this go for the sake of holding the family together, she replied in dismay, “But I couldn’t face society if I did—everybody does it.” She lost her husband because she had no courage to get out of step with an imperious but senseless custom.
Many of us lose our souls for lack of courage. We will not stand up and take it, so we crawl, become worms. If you are on the Way, you must get used to the sight of your own blood. Paul speaks of four steps in development, “Knowing that trouble produces endurance, endurance produces character, and character produces hope—a hope which never disappoints us” (Rom. 5:3-5 Moffatt). Note the steps: (1) trouble leads to (2) endurance, endurance to (3) character, and character to (4) hope. Character is formed out of endurance, which is formed out of trouble; and character brings forth hope—the only hope that will never let us down, that will not disappoint us.
O Christ, I see that the trouble that comes from courage is strengthening my fiber, strengthening me, giving me hope, a hope that holds up. Then give me that gentle courage that will be disciplined to face life bravely and cheerfully. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: “The Eternal is my light and aid; whom shall I fear?” (Ps. 27:1 Moffatt).
*Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols (New York: Macmillan, 1912), 26.
Week 33 Monday
Discipline Your Beginnings
Psalm 119:9-16
We continue our meditation on discipline.
(4) Discipline your beginnings. When Jesus spoke of the fire of discipline, he did so after mentioning three possible hindrances: hand, foot, and eye. If any of these offends, that is, cuts across the purposes of your life, cut it off or pluck it out. We are to be disciplined at the place of the hand, the foot, the eye.
The hand is the thing that takes hold, the thing that grasps what we want. Don’t take hold of a thing unless you want that thing to take hold of you. For your possessions often end in possessing you. Be careful of what you grasp. Grasp it only if you are willing that the thing shall grip you. The hand must be disciplined.
The foot approaches the thing desired. Don’t walk toward a thing unless you are willing to take hold of the thing and have the thing take hold of you. Discipline your approaches to life. Many people think they can walk up to a thing and enjoy the anticipatory thrill of approach, but turn back this side of the deed. This is deadly, for it is destiny. You destine yourself to the deed when you decide to approach it.
The eye looks at the thing that you may approach and then may grasp and possess. Watch what you see. You first see, then seek. For seeing creates desire, and desire creates emotion, and in the battle between the emotion and the will the emotion nearly always wins. Jesus put his finger on the necessity of the disciplined eye in these words, “Anyone who even looks with lust at a woman has committed adultery with her already in his heart” (Matt. 5:28 Moffatt). The look leads to adultery in the heart, and adultery in the heart leads to adultery in the act, so quench adultery at the place of the look. Those who think they can indulge at the place of seeing, and pull back at the place of seeking, are putting their feet on a slippery bank. Discipline the beginnings and the ends will take care of themselves. In temptation, flight is better than fight. To avert the eye is easier than to avert the destiny that comes from approach to and handling of the desired thing.
Discipline the beginnings. The ends are in the beginnings.
O Christ, how wonderfully true you are to life. You lay it bare before our eyes. Through your eyes we see, really see. Help us to see and to seek what you saw and sought. Then we shall be safe. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: “When I think my look is slipping, thy goodness, O Eternal, holds me up” (Ps. 94:18 Moffatt).
Week 33 Tuesday
Discipline Your Persistence
Philippians 3:16; Hebrews 12:1-6
We look at another place of discipline:
(5) Discipline yourself at the place of carrying through. A great many good but ineffective people discipline their beginnings. They take up good things, but they don’t carry through. Their lives are strewn with the wreckage of good beginnings and poor endings.
Don’t take up everything that comes along. Save yourself for the best. “Beware of sacrificing your burnt-offerings at any sacred spot you see” (Deut. 12:13 Moffatt). Save yourself to sacrifice your life offering on the Altar of the Worthwhile. Louis Untermeyer prays, “From compromise and things half-done,/Keep me, with stern and stubborn pride.”*
“You must not swerve to the right or to the left, but always follow the straight road of life which the Eternal your God has laid down for you, that you may live” (Deut. 5:32-33 Moffatt). Get guidance from God, know your call, and then stay by it until you hear the recall. That doesn’t mean that you may not have to retrace steps, change tasks, and callings—you may have to. It does mean that once you know your call and your task, stay by it with the persistence of a puppy with a root. In a long-distance race, the little man who finished last finished, though he was several laps behind, and the winner was already across the tape. Instead of dropping out as the rest had done when they saw they were beaten, he kept doggedly on. The crowd laughed at first, then applauded, and he got an ovation at the close.
“I am staying on. . . . I have wide opportunities here . . . and there are many to thwart me” (1 Cor. 16:9 Moffatt). Many of us would have said, “I am quitting. I have wide opportunities here, but there are too many things against me.”
“The Lord said: ‘Well, where is the trusty, thoughtful steward whom the lord and master will set over his establishment?” (Luke 12:42 Moffatt). Note two things, “trusty” and “thoughtful”—honesty and intelligence. Both honesty without intelligence and intelligence without honesty are inadequate. Trusty means not only honesty but also that one can be trusted to go through to completion.
O Christ, I know you want to use me. But I cannot be used unless I am trusty and thoughtful. Help me to be trusted to go through—clear to the end with unwavering persistence. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: “Never will he let you slip; he who guards you never sleeps” (Ps. 121:3 Moffatt).
* Louis Untermeyer, “Prayer,” Challenge (New York: Harcourt, Brace & Howe, 1920), 8.
Week 33 Wednesday
Discipline Your Time
Ephesians 5:15-18; 1 Thessalonians 5:14
We look further at discipline:
(6) Discipline your time. If, in discussing the last point of disciplining yourself to carry tasks through to completion, your rationalization is, “Well, I haven’t the time,” then the answer must be to Discipline your time. If you actually haven’t time for it, then you ought not to do it; it isn’t your task. You must exercise the duty of refusing to do good. You must not take too much on your plate with a lot of leftovers.
But perhaps the real difficulty is that you don’t use to best advantage the time you have. Your time is undisciplined. You carry on conversations long after they have run out of intelligence; for most conversations run out of intelligence in half an hour! You do not tackle your tasks decisively and get them done and out of the way. You daydream instead of think; you dawdle instead of do. You waste hours of time at games that are supposed to be recreation, but that wreck time and you.
Time is distilled opportunity. Don’t waste it, for in doing so you lay waste to yourself. Every wasted moment is so much wasted you. Budget your time. Plan your work, and work your plan.
Don’t be always running to try to keep up with your tasks, keep them in hand, and anticipate them. A sign says, “Don’t write—wire.” I’d like to reverse it, “Don’t wire—write.” For that means that you have looked ahead, have seen the thing coming, have met it ahead of time, instead of waiting until the last minute and then fussily wiring, feverishly telephoning long-distance. Those kinds of people are upset and upsetting, demanding that people atone for their procrastinations by answering their feverish requests with feverish response.
The Man who influenced the world most was the Man with the leisured heart.
A little boy, late for school, asked God to help him to be there on time. He ran, stumbled, and breathlessly said, “God, I asked you to help me, but don’t push me.” Don’t let your jobs push you; you stumble if you do. Discipline your time.
O Christ, when I look at you I see that you were never in a hurry, never ran, but always had time for the pressing necessities of the day. Give me that disciplined poised life with time always for the things that matter. For I would be a disciplined person. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: “He who believes [in God] will not be in haste” (Isa. 28:16).
Week 33 Thursday
Discipline Yourself to “What Is”
2 Corinthians 1:4-6; 2:14; 4:15-18
We look at another place of discipline:
(7) Discipline yourself to “What is.” Many people uselessly beat themselves upon the bars of life, beating their wings out because they cannot fly. “If I were only there, or anywhere but here, I’d be all right.” They dream of what they would do if they were not here.
But we always have to live on what is. The children of Israel lived on manna in the wilderness as they journeyed to the Promised Land. Manna means, “What is.” They didn’t know what it was, so they called it “What is.” They lived on “What is.” You and I must live on “What is,” no matter if we hope to live on “What will be.” The children of Israel got tired of manna, but it sustained them until they got to the Promised Land. You and I may get tired of “What is,” but we must learn to live by it until we get to our Promised Land.
I was off-loaded (bumped) in Trinidad on my journey back from South America, off-loaded by two local passengers. I was a “through” passenger. It meant I missed important, long-planned mass meetings in Miami. The priority officer agreed that I had had “a raw deal.” But these words came to me as clear as crystal, “Lord, I do not ask for special treatment; I ask for power to take any treatment that may come and use it.” Peace settled within me. That sentence itself has lingered as a benediction within me ever since. I lived by it during that waiting period—lived by “What is”—and have lived by it in many a situation since. To get that sentence was worth the delay. You can rescue out of every unjust, impossible situation something that makes that situation, not confining, but contributing. You can live on “What is.” And the manna will feed you, sustain you until you get to God’s better thing, to God’s Promised Land.
A fifty-year-old letter carrier had a stroke that impaired one arm and made one leg drag helplessly. Were his letter-carrying days done? Oh no. He still distributes letters, all of them with good cheer. He sits in front of his house, waves a cheery greeting to everybody who goes by—the center of the city’s good cheer. He is living on “What is” and helping a city to do the same.
O Christ, I thank you that you lived on the manna of the silent years of obscurity in Nazareth—and lived on it gloriously. Help me to live on what comes—good, bad, and indifferent. Then I shall truly live. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: If I don’t get what I like, then I shall like what I get.
Week 33 Friday
Discipline Your Tongue
James 3:1-12
We must look at a discipline that is needed by all:
(8) Discipline your tongue. The expression of a thing deepens the impression, so a word uttered becomes a word made flesh—in us. We become the incarnation of what we express. Jesus said, “By your words you will be either judged innocent or condemned as guilty” (Matt. 12:37 CEB). This always sounded superficial until I saw that you become what you say. If you tell a lie, you become a lie. The deepest punishment of a lie is—the liar. The liar has to live with a person who can’t be trusted. That is an uneasy hell. There are therefore no “white lies,” for they leave a black mark on the soul. “Isn’t a lie ever justifiable?” No, absolutely, no. Evil means produce evil ends always. Let it be said of you as was said of Sara Teasdale, “Her later lyrics grew more and more straightforward, more dependent on an inner authority and less upon clever manipulation of facts.”*
Discipline your tongue not only to the truth but also to the relevant truth. Discipline yourself to concise, straightforward speech. A speaker introduced by a very flowery, verbose chairperson arose and said, “The adjective is the enemy of the noun.” It is. Sometimes the speaker weakens nouns by overuse of adjectives. A speaker sat down sadly after a wordy discourse and remarked, “I couldn’t have said less, unless I had said more.” He had preached his own funeral. Discipline your tongue to the relevant, to speech that is straightforward, that says what it means and means what it says.
Discipline your tongue to the loving. When in doubt, say the most loving thing and you will not be wrong. I asked the Western Union clerk if I could put the word love into a tour-rate telegram, telling of arrival, without detour-rating it. She replied, “Yes, for if love weren’t allowed to be put into tour rate telegrams, it might cause trouble in homes.” If we don’t put love into everything we say, it may cause trouble anywhere. Paul says, “This is how I write. ‘The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all’ ” (2 Thess. 3:18 Moffatt). Is that how we write and speak, “grace . . . all”?
O Christ, nothing but gracious words proceeded out of your mouth. Discipline my tongue to the truthful, to the relevant, and to the loving. For my words will condemn me to be what they are. Then help me. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: “Set a watch upon my mouth, O Thou Eternal, guard thou the door of my lips; may I have no mind to evil” (Ps. 141:3 Moffatt).
*Sara Teasdale (1884–1933) was an American lyric poet. No source for the quotation was found.
Week 33 Saturday
Discipline Your Disciplines
Acts 20:28-35
Today we sum up our meditations on discipline. Discipline is not something imposed on a reluctant human nature by an arbitrary God. True, it is said, “He let you hear his voice out of heaven, for discipline” (Deut. 4:36 Moffatt). But the “voice out of heaven” is exactly the same as the voice out of our needs. For the voice out of heaven voices only what we need but often cannot voice for ourselves. God’s voice and our needs are one. In choosing disciplines, we choose the laws and demands of our beings. If this is true, then we must:
(9) Discipline our disciplines. We must not allow them to become too obvious, too much a living by rule of thumb, too stilted. A person who is obviously trying to be disciplined is not rhythmical and winsome. The disciplines must be buried in the subconscious where they work naturally as a part of you. In the beginning, you may have to impose them until they take root within you. But the goal is to make them artesian instead of artificial. “The disciplines must be as hidden as is the art of the violinist who obeys rules, but seems not to be obeying anything except the creative urge within. The rules have become a regularity; the laws have become a liberty.
Jesus said to his disciples, “Take heed to yourselves” just after he had said, “That will turn out an opportunity for you to bear witness” (Luke 21:34, 13 Moffatt). The connection was obvious; keep yourselves spiritually fit and ready, so that when you are suddenly brought by circumstances before an opportunity for witnessing, you may not be nonplussed. Your disciplines will then function as spontaneous habit. For the disciplines have become you.
The end of the discipline is not merely to make you, but to make you Christlike. “ ‘If he [the disciple] is perfectly trained, he will be like his teacher” (Luke 6:40 Moffatt).The end of the discipline is to make you “perfectly trained” so that you may be like your Master. You are being disciplined into Christlikeness.
O Christ, I thank you that your disciplined heart sang its song of freedom; give me the song of freedom through discipline. Bring every desire into captivity to the obedience of your will. Then I too shall sing the song of freedom. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: “The Eternal your God disciplines you as a man disciplines his son” (Deut. 8:5 Moffatt).