Is there a connection between discipline and wisdom and
understanding? Our parents sure thought
so. Discipline can mean a great many
things and we are inclined to focus on only one aspect of that definition. Discipline could mean going to school every
day, working on homework, practicing a musical instrument or sport or it could
mean negative reinforcement, verbally, physically or otherwise. Without discipline we never know when we have
gone astray and endangered ourselves in some way. We won't improve at anything in life without
discipline, with only positive feedback.
In order to find wisdom we have to know where to find it and we can't
get there without some discipline. We tend
to follow our desires and we know from the start that is the wrong path, it was
what led Adam and Eve astray. To correct desire and live at the level of wisdom
requires discipline, either self-imposed or God's intervention. As Will Rogers said, "There are three
kinds of men. The one that learns by reading. The few who learn by observation.
The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves."
Conventional religious wisdom said that a man in the tomb
four days is dead without hope of revival.
The soul was believed to hang around for three days waiting for the body
to revive so that it could "re-inhabit" the body but after that time
it gave up and went where souls go. Lazarus
was dead. Both Martha and Mary are of
the opinion that if Jesus had come when they sent for Him this would not be the
case. They believe that however bad
their brother's illness was that Jesus could have done something to save
him. Martha believes that even now God
will give what Jesus asks but what does she mean by that statement? She believes that her brother will rise again
at the last day, in the general resurrection, but she isn't willing to go
further than that. Jesus' statement,
"I am resurrection and I am life" should stop us in our tracks when
we read it but how stunning it must have been for Martha to hear it from His lips
that day. She believes He is Messiah,
the Son of God, and then she seems to have abruptly left the conversation to go
and get Mary. It would certainly have
been an uncomfortable moment for her. If
you think telling someone you love them for the first time is frightening,
imagine telling them you believe them to be the Messiah.
We can work on discipline in our lives, reading, prayer,
fasting, simplicity, and other things, but ultimately we need God's discipline in
our lives as well. We need the Holy
Spirit to convict us of sin, of failing to love. We can easily conclude that based on our own
life compared to others we are doing well but others aren't the measure of sin. Sin is more than simply the outwardly wrong
things we do, love is equally important and we need help to love others, we
need to be convicted when we aren't loving.
Our consciences sometimes need to convict us. The pope recently proposed
to an atheist's question about sin by appealing to conscience and it was
perfect. Sometimes Christians want to
talk so spiritually that we aren't understood by those not in the know. The conscience is the beginning point of
knowledge of sin and therefore some higher standard against which we have
transgressed, God's standard. With that little
bit of discipline we have begun the journey of discovery.
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