The Call to Discipline

The call to Christianity is the call to discipline. A spiritual life is a disciplined life. All success and happiness in life is directly proportional to the level of discipline applied from within. Discipline is the ability or internal disposition to control oneself and focus our thoughts, words, actions and behaviours towards a desired good end. To have discipline is to have power over one’s mind, emotions, feelings and passions. A lack of discipline is reflected in unbridled appetites and passions having control over us. Discipline is a foundation of strength of character. When we admire heroic people and extraordinary accomplishments and deeds, we are really admiring, maybe without realising it, their discipline. We really recognise and value in their character the power and command they have over themselves. They are not subject or controlled by an undisciplined inner self. Victory over the inner self must precede victory in the outer world. Private victory comes before public victory. The two cannot be separated. It is impossible to have untamed passions inside our selves and direct our actions toward a worthy goal outside of ourselves. Our passions will subvert our actions.  Anything worthwhile accomplished in this world is achieved by applying some level of discipline. The greater the inner discipline, the greater our effect on our lives and the world. We could say we either control or be controlled. Being spiritual is about being in control. Discipline is not about living a stifled or restrictive lifestyle. Discipline develops and refines the lesser you, the lower you, the potential you, into the true you. Discipline is the tool to realise the true you, the true self. The true you is the person you were created to be. Today’s culture completely rejects the philosophy of discipline because it preaches the opposite, the philosophy of instant gratification. We are scripted by today’s focus on the social image to do whatever it takes to feel pleasure and fell good now, whatever the consequences. Society convinces us that the consequences are worth it just for the “no strings attached” instant pleasures and gratification. Take short cuts, take without paying, borrow not save, have it today we pay the consequences tomorrow, wealth without work, pleasure without pain, living together before marriage, the “fruit without the commitment” is the mantra. This philosophy defines love as self love, self pleasure and self focused; the philosophy of discipline defines love as self denial, self sacrifice and other focused.  But the effects of this lack of discipline are evident at all stratums of society; addiction, broken relationships, divorce, aggression, crime, disease, debt, stress, health problems and unhappiness. Man has a thinking mind and free will. He can think, reason, question and pursue a purpose and is free to act towards that end. That is his uniqueness, power and ultimately his greatest responsibility. But to control and direct his thinking mind and will he requires an operating system much the same as a computer. That operating system is discipline.