Discipline

Someone once said that educators, politicians, and pastors are the three groups of people who have the hardest time with accountability. A lot of truth in that. But I also think that this abhorrence of accountability is the result of having some other character traits that make them good educators, politicians, and pastors. In spite of this, I think we pastors should be accountable to others but also focus on personal discipline.

I was in Africa for my 7th-11th grades of high school. The boarding school I went to only went through the 9th grade. For my 10th grade the school agreed to allow about 4 of us students to attend even though we were using home school curriculum. I guess the thought was the structure and resources would help us. By 11th grade we apparently caused too much trouble because they decided to stop the program so I was a true home-schooler for 11th grade.

For some reason my parents allowed me a lot freedom with regards to my schedule as long as I got the work done. A teenage boy in Africa is a wonderful experience and I spent most of my day hunting, fishing and playing soccer. After supper I would work on my school work before hitting the sack and repeating the routine.

Funny how teenagers prioritize. It wasn't long before I started falling behind in my school work. When my dad found out I was over a month behind he put his foot down. No more fun until I caught up. I worked hard until I got my "toys" back but then I had to be disciplined to keep them. That was a tough year and the first time I had to really force myself to be disciplined for a long period of time.

I think pastors need to think about self-discipline every day. There are a lot of good things I could be doing but I need to consider what is the best thing I could be doing. There is a lot of tension between passion and your work. Even though something is your passion doesn't mean there aren't times when you have to do things you really don't want to do. I'm quite sure Jesus was passionate about his redemptive work but I know there were parts of it he didn't want to go through.

So my daily prayer of discipline???? Lord, let this cup pass if possible, but if not, give me the discipline to do your will. Amen