Discipline Is Such Discipline

For almost seventeen years now, I have been an avid participant in regular exercise. I began getting in shape when I was thirty and spent two weeks flat on the couch from severe lower back strain. I joined the YMCA, bought aerobic equipment and weights for the home, and the rest is history.

One of the things I noticed after a couple of years of going four or so times a week to work out, was that at certain points throughout the year, the gym was packed, and at other times it was almost desolate; and it was not because of the particular time I went each day. (And my observations have been true for the three different YMCAs of which I have been a member.) In January, the place is packed. People are getting back at it in the hope of shedding those pounds gained after the holidays. This lasts through the end of February and perhaps into the first couple weeks of March. From the middle of March through the middle to the end of April, the workout crowd is sparse. Attendance begins to increase somewhat in the middle of April and it dramatically improves during the month of May; after all, people have to be able to fit into their swimsuits for summer vacation. Summer is absolutely dead. Only the really serious sultans of sweat run on the treadmills and lift weights in June, July, and August. Once September rolls around, everyone is back at the Y again until about the first of November. With the holidays in November and December, the diehards can easily find an elliptical trainer to use or a weight bench to perform reps and sets. And then, right after December is over, people get back into their shorts and t-shirts and start sweating to the new year once again.

I relate this because as I went to the Y with my sons late this afternoon, there was hardly an elliptical trainer, a treadmill, a stationary bike, and a weight machine that was unoccupied. One of my sons remarked, "Where'd all these people come from?"

Discipline is a discipline. One cannot be disciplined without motivation, conviction, and the ability to engage in self-denial. It is certainly true that what some find difficult, others find to be easy. For some exercise is so loved, it is easy for them to get up off the couch and onto a stationary bike. Others find that, when it comes to working out, they have to struggle to motivate themselves even to stand. But one thing is certain-- whether it comes easy or not, we all know exercise is good for us.

It is no accident that Christians are disciples. Christianity is a discipline. If we are to follow Jesus in a way that he finds pleasing, we must be motivated, we must have the convictions necessary to assist us as we press on in our faith, and we must deny ourselves all those things that make us less disciplined and, therefore, less disciples of our Lord.

Moreover, we do not deny ourselves for the sake of denial, we deny ourselves in order to free our lives and our time to indulge in the good things of God-- in prayer and devotion, in worship and in service. The discipline of Christianity is not only about saying no, but it is found grasping the yes, of embracing the Christ, who has first said yes to us in his resurrection. As St. Paul wrote to the Philippians, "Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus" (3:12-14).

Christianity is a discipline, and discipline is such discipline; but for those who throw themselves into the discipline of following Jesus, the prize that awaits them is beyond comprehension!