How Life Works: Wisdom Living from Proverbs
02/18/2001 - Develop Discipline
This week I read a story about an old country farmer who was sitting in a rocking chair out on his front porch one day, just taking it easy. And a stranger came by and thought that it was odd that a farmer would be sitting there during the day when there was so much work to be done. So he said to the farmer, "Hey, how's it going?" The farmer said, "Just fine, I reckon. Two weeks ago a cyclone came along and knocked down all the trees I had to chop down for this winter's firewood. Last week lightening struck and burned all the brush that I had to clear for planting. And this week it rained so hard that it cleaned all the mud off my truck so I didn't have to wash it." The stranger said, "Wow! That's amazing! So what are you doing now?" The farmer said, "I'm just sittin' back and waitin' for an earthquake to shake all the potaters out of the ground!"
We hear that and we think, "Wow! I wish my life worked that way. Just kind of sit back and watch my work get done, my marriage get better, my kids get raised, my body get in shape, the house get cleaned, the meals get cooked, the bills get paid." But the truth is that life doesn't work that way does it? Yet there seem to be a whole bunch of people who think it does. Do you know anybody that thinks that if they just sit in the rocking chair, the earthquakes goin' to come and things in their life will just get better somehow, someway, someday.
In fact, the favorite word for people like that is "someday." Someday my ship will come in. Someday someone will offer me a fantastic opportunity that will change my life. Someday someone will float into my life that I can date or marry. Someday my marriage will just get better. Someday my kids will stop getting into trouble. Someday I'll win the lottery and payoff all my credit cards. Someday my metabolism will go up and all my fat will just burn away. Someday I'll stop drinking or doing drugs and I'll be clean. Someday I'll get serious about my faith. Someday I'll get my finances in order and start giving to God. You name it and some one has a "Someday" slogan ready to slap right on it. But the problem with living that way is that "someday" hardly ever comes.
Someday people are sometimes called procrastinators. Did you the Procrastinators Club of America is located right here in Philadelphia? The club was finally organized in 1957, after years and years of discussing the idea. They've had the same officers for the last 44 years, but they're planning to have elections someday. They don't celebrate the Fourth of July in the summer. They celebrate it in February. They celebrate Christmas in June. In fact, I called the Procrastinators Club this week and asked if they have a website and the guy on the phone said to me, no lie, "What's a website? We're still waiting to get a touch tone phone!"
After I hung up and got a grip on myself I decided to go online anyway and I found a website called procastinators.com. And if you go there you'll find one page, black and white, and it say's, "Coming Some Day, Will be updated whenever." And then it has a dotted box where a picture is supposed to go, but its blank and say's "back ordered."
Someday people are sometimes called procrastinators and sometimes called other things. The book of Proverbs has a name for someday people and it doesn't sound nearly as sophisticated. It calls someday people sluggards and describes them in very vivid terms.
Turn to Proverbs 6:9-11, How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep? 10 A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest 11 and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man.
Sluggards have trouble doing things now. They always seem to have an excuse why they need to wait just a little while longer before they get started. It's always "too cold, too hot, too wet, too late, too early, too heavy, too far, too much, too fast, too slow, too hard."
Sometimes their excuses are ridiculous. Look atProverbs 22:13, The sluggard says, "There's a lion outside!" or, "I'll be murdered in the streets!" Foolish, exaggerated excuses, sluggards have a million of them.
This week I heard about a man who was giving his wife all kinds of excuses for why he didn't want to go to church. He rolled over one Sunday morning and told his wife, "I'm not going to church today. I'm tired, the people there don't like me and the sermons are always boring." And his wife pushed him out of bed and said, "You bet you're going to church. First of all, it's Sunday and that's the day we worship no matter how we feel. Second, it's doesn't matter what the people think of you, you're going there for God. And third, you gotta go because you're the pastor!"
Excuses! Sluggards know them all. But if we make excuses long enough and often enough, in any area of our life, we'll be ruined. Like the person described in Proverbs 24:30-34, I went past the field of the sluggard, past the vineyard of someone who lacks judgment 31 thorns had come up everywhere, the ground was covered with weeds, and the stone wall was in ruins. 32 I applied my heart to what I observed and learned a lesson from what I saw. 33 A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest 34 and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man.
This person ruined his life, not all at once, but little by little over time. He didn't pull the weeds, he didn't cut the grass, he didn't fix the stone wall. He was going to get around tuit someday. But he didn't and one he woke and his life caved in. Most of us read a passage like that and think, "that's not my problem. I'm busy. My life is frantic with work and school and the kids. I wish I had time for a little rest and a little slumber. I'm barely getting 6 hours sleep a night as it is." And that's true for most of us. But it's also true that most have pockets of sloth in our lives that are eating away at us, areas of our life where the weeds are growing and the walls are falling down and not paying attention. Areas that aren't under control and may even be off limits to God.
There's the Dad who sets all kinds of sales records at work and shoots a 4 handicap at the golf course, but when it comes to meeting the emotional needs of his wife and kids and one day may find that they're gone. Or like the working Mom who pours everything she's got into her job and into her kids, but doesn't take any time to develop her own walk with God. Or like the person that just can't seem to get a handle on good eating habits and proper exercise. That's me right now, especially this week with Jennifer away and a steady diet cheesesteaks, french fries and Cokes. Or the couple that struggles to manage their resources well and always finds that there's too much month left at the end of the money, instead of too much money left at the end of the month. Or like the person who comes to Valley View and says someday I'm going to get serious about following Jesus, someday. We all have pockets of sloth in our lives that God wants to help us deal with. And for that we need to develop discipline.
In contrast to the sluggard, Proverbs talks a lot about the diligent. The diligent man or the diligent woman works hard and gets rewarded for their efforts sometimes with wealth. Look at Proverbs 10:4, Lazy hands make for poverty, but diligent hands bring wealth.
Sometimes the rewards are with leadership and authority. Look at Proverbs 12:24, Diligent hands will rule, but laziness ends in slave labor.
And sometimes the reward is just with the simple satisfaction of getting things done. Look at Proverbs 13:4, The sluggard craves and gets nothing, but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied.
Now what's the difference between the sluggard and the diligent? Is it IQ? No. Is it education? No. Is it talent? No. Is it physical ability? No. There's only one difference between the sluggard and the diligent, it's discipline. The "D" word. Now, if you're like me when you hear the word discipline the first images that come to your mind are usually negative. I think of a kid getting punished, or a soldier getting court martialed, or a student getting expelled. When I think of discipline I think of rules and routines and things that bind me.
But the truth is that discipline frees us to be all that we can be. It's the one tool, perhaps more than any other, that can make our life work well. When I see Olympic athletes standing on top of podiums with gold medals hanging around their necks and smiles on their faces and tears streaming down their cheeks it's discipline that got them there. The discipline to get up at 5 o'clock every morning and go to the gym, or the track, or the pool, or the weight room and work hard when there are no cameras and there are no crowds or there is no applause. The same can be said for those who excel in music or in the arts or at school or on the job or at home. Discipline is the key that sets us free to be all that we can be.
Proverbs 15:19 says, The way of the sluggard is blocked with thorns, but the path of the upright is a highway. Discipline is a highway that helps us get to where we want to go. It's an ally, not an enemy. It's on our side to make our life work well. If the goals for your life are higher than just kind of drifting along, and they should be, then you need this tool in your toolbox. But how do we develop discipline so that we can apply it to every area of our life?
Let me give you three keys to developing discipline. The first key is delayed gratification. Turn to Proverbs 6:6-8, Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! 7 It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, 8 yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest.
We can learn lessons about discipline from the ants that we crush under our feet. It's funny a Dad was teaching his son some of these lessons and he said, "You know every day the ant works hard. He never wastes time. He's goal oriented. He never wavers. That's why he's successful." His son said, "That's right, Dad!" The Father said, "Good. You understand. So what have you learned from the ant? What happens to the ant in the end?" The boy looked up at his Dad and said, "He gets stepped on."
That's one lesson. But another lesson is that the ant is self-motivated and doesn't need a leader to get its work done. And that's because it's learned the power of delayed gratification which is at the heart of what discipline is all about. The ant gathers its food and works hard in the summer when there's food to be gathered, so that in the winter time, when there is no food to get the ant will be well taken care of. Do your work first and then enjoy the fruits of your labor, that's delayed gratification. It's getting the steps in the right order like we talked about last week.
For a child that means eating all your dinner before you get dessert, eating the cake before you eat the icing, that's a tough one for me, doing your homework before you go out to play, doing your jobs before you watch TV.
For a high school student that means studying hard before having fun, so that you'll do well on that test and bring up that GPA and get into the college if that's what you want and maybe even get a scholarship.
For me in college as a long distance swimmer that meant swimming lap after lap, mile after mile for months getting ready for a championship meet in March. And it was the delayed gratification of winning a race or doing a best time that made me do that nonsense.
For the sales rep at work that means making the phone calls, setting up the appointments, doing the presentations, making the numbers so you can win that trip to Cancun. That's delayed gratification.
For the parent, perhaps the toughest job of all, that means loving your kids, listening to your kids, teaching your kids, correcting your kids, being patient your kids, driving your kids back and forth to practices and to games, playing with your kids, reading to your kids, praying with your kids, tucking your kids in at night all the while trusting God that one day they will grow up to walk wisely and to say, "Thanks Mom and Dad for raising me well." The rewards come later.
The New Testament puts it this way in Hebrews 12:11, No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. Later on comes the harvest, later on comes the payoff of discipline.
The second key to developing discipline is planning ahead. That's really what's behind the first nine chapters of the book of Proverbs where the King is warning his son about the potential dangers in the world. He wants his kids to make some wise decisions now before they ever get mixed up with the wrong crowd and the pressure to say "no" just gets too great.
And one decision he wants his children to make is the choice to be morally pure. Turn to Proverbs 6:25-29. In this section called "Warning Against Adultery" Solomon says to his sons, Do not lust in your heart after her beauty or let her captivate you with her eyes, 26 for the prostitute reduces you to a loaf of bread, and the adulteress preys upon your very life. 27 Can a man scoop fire into his lap without his clothes being burned? 28 Can a man walk on hot coals without his feet being scorched? 29 So is he who sleeps with another man's wife; no one who touches her will go unpunished.
You get involved sexually with someone who isn't your spouse and you're going to be toast, Solomon says, reduced to a loaf of bread! In other words, immorality will cost you money, it'll take you down to your last loaf. It'll also cost you relationally, physically and emotionally as well. So make that decision now to stay morally pure before temptation comes. That's planning ahead.
Church is a great place to make decisions like that. This is a great place to think through your sexual future, to do a cost benefit analysis. Staying morally pure guarantees you a clean conscience before a holy God and before your spouse or your boyfriend or your girlfriend. Sexual purity means you don't have to worry about blowing your family apart and damaging your kids. It means there's no fear of sexually transmitted diseases or unwanted pregnancies. This is a great time to think through the benefits of sexual integrity. And to think to about the costs of sexual sin. The guilt before God, the irreparable damage to a spouse and kids, or another significant person in your life. Make the decision to be morally right now and it will lead to life.
We try to help our kids plan ahead with decisions like this before they ever feel the heat. We talk honestly with our 12 year-old daughter and our 9 year-old son about all kinds of temptations they're going to face-sexual temptations, the temptation to lie, and to steal and to cheat and to drink and to do drugs. We want them prepared in advance for what they're going to face. We think they'll bat for a lot higher average in middle school and high school if they're prepared. If they've planned ahead.
The same applies to decisions about worshiping with God's people every Sunday, to be part of a small group that encourages you in your faith, to spend time alone with God on a regular basis, to carve out nights for family and time for friends. People who make those kinds of decisions and seal them usually wind up with lives that work pretty well. People that don't usually end up jamming their gears.
And finally, the third key for developing discipline is to celebrate often. Proverbs 17:22 says, A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones. God wants us to have joy. And nothing robs our joy like a chaotic, undisciplined life. That kind of life fills us with anxiety and fear, because we never know if we're doing what we should be doing and things are always falling through the cracks. A disciplined life has structure and a plan, but if we're not careful we can be so structured that we plan joy right out of our lives.
So make sure you build little celebrations into the rhythm of your life. Reward yourself with a cup of coffee at the end of a task, or a phone call to your spouse, or a Hershey bar. Give yourself a pizza night or a movie night at the end of a week. Build in regular times of fun and fellowship, spontaneity and celebration so you don't become a slave to discipline. Otherwise you'll end up serving discipline instead of letting discipline serve you.
Jesus was a master at this. He was the most disciplined person who ever lived, but boy did he know how to have a good time. Read the gospels and you'll see that his well-ordered life was sprinkled with mountain hikes and seaside campfires and boat trips and wedding celebrations and overnights with close friends and long dinner parties. He was on a mission, but his mission allowed plenty of room for joy in his life. And that's the life he invites us to. A life lived on purpose, disciplined around the core issues that can make or break us, but punctuated with lots of celebrations that keep our lives fresh and sweet.
The three keys to discipline--delayed gratification, planning ahead and celebrate often. And if you're wondering if you can pull all that off, let me remind you this morning that you have a helper and his name is the Holy Spirit. And if you're a believer in Jesus Christ today you've got the software of the Holy Spirit loaded up on your hard drive. And one of the fruits of the Spirit is self-discipline. In 2 Timothy 1:7 the apostle Paul says, For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.
We've got it. It's there for us to use. And if we access the software of the Holy Spirit and put discipline into practice in our life there's no telling who we can become and what we can achieve. Develop discipline at it will help make your life work well.