Still Thinking About Discipline

One of the things that is interesting about Christianity is the problem that it's freedom creates. Lord, You never demanded that we pray five times a day facing Jerusalem, or that we start every morning by reciting the Lord's prayer, or any other sort of ritual. In fact, many Christians deride ritual. Then there is the fact that You are instantly available to our prayers any time we lift them up. So again, You have no schedule that You require us to fulfill.

But maybe all this freedom is the problem. How many days do I wake up in the morning, feel cozy next to my wife and think to myself, "I'll do my Scripture reading later"? But then I never get to it because it just doesn't fit in. I have the freedom to push it off, therefore I have the freedom to not do it at all. Same is true of prayer, Lord. How often has someone asked me to pray for them, and instead of immediately praying for them right there, I tell them I'll remember it for later and then I forget?
We have more access to You than we can handle, because we end up taking You for granted.

Discipline. What is this becoming to me in my mind? Discipline seems to be the process of limiting myself, limiting my freedom, in order to be more effective in accomplishing a goal. That limiting may come through schedule, or ritual, or a task I perform every day (Scripture reading). The goal is to get closer to You.

And how much more meaningful it is when we choose to give up our freedom and be limited? I know one of the most meaningful things to me in my marriage is when I know that my wife is tired and yet she will stay up with up and attend to my needs, talking to me, laying close to me, watching a basketball game with me. It's special because she freely gives up sleep, and our relationship grows ten times as fast in these times of sacrifice.

Amazingly, You gave us a perfect example of limits, of discipline that made You more effective in reaching a goal. Except, Your goal was us. The discipline was taking on all the limits of human flesh, all the temptations, all the sorrows, all the pains, the complete weakness compared to Your complete strength. And by choosing to give up Your ultimate freedom, You gave us the opportunity to be closer to You than we could have imagined.

But we must follow suit. We must be limited as well. Instead of being paralyzed by an all-encompassing freedom, Lord, let me choose limits. And just so we are clear, I'm going to define my limits today in this space, before You.

- Mornings with You
- Scripture reading daily (Bible in a Year, starting tomorrow)
- Conversational prayer daily

They are simple, but they will require sacrifice. Help me to rejoice in that!