Say "Yes" to the Apple!

I’m thinking about discipline—not a very fun word, perhaps. But what does it really mean? I must confess, self-discipline is not my strong suit. I have a hard time turning off Tetris (see last month), passing up the cookies, getting out of bed. I think it’s linked to my reluctance to say “no” or to walk away.  But what if it’s time to walk away? Time to move on or pass by? 

In Sunday School, we’ve been discussing Andy Stanley’s message about “Breathing Room,” and we’ve been invited to think about what to add or cut from our lives, what to do more or less of, in order to create the necessary “breathing room” that is healthy.  It occurs to me that if I say “yes” to more positive and productive choices---yes to reading that book for Sunday School, yes to an apple, yes to . . . Actually, I am not sure how to get myself out of bed with more ease. 

But if I fill myself and my time with what is good for me, then the not-so-good will be pushed aside. Psalm 90:12 says, “Teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom” (KJV). Another version puts it this way: “So teach us to number our days, that we may present to You a heart of wisdom” (NASB).  Annie Dillard, in The Writing Life, reminds us that “[h]ow we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.”

In The Music of Silence, David Steindl-Rast speaks of “the gift of a disciplined life.” I venture to say that many of us don’t think of discipline as a gift. When we remember, though, that the root of the word “discipline” is the same as the root for “disciple,” it’s easier to see how discipline—Christian discipline in following Jesus—is indeed a gift.  

I don’t have all the answers to living a truly disciplined life, but I have gained some important insight. And I’m working on it, one apple at a time.

---Sherry Poff