A Failure of Discipline, or the problem of "Actual"

This is a follow-up post to my previous post about Discipline.

My wife and I finished P90X.  We had to move a couple of days around, but we did all of the workouts in the schedule within the 90 days.  The only workouts we didn't do were the optional stretching days, which ended up being rest days (as well as travel days, "we worked on other things" days, etc.).

I did not continue reading "Celebration of Discipline," and I did not do a weekly follow up.  That may still happen.

But I have continued to think and to learn.  I am thinking about the difference between saying you will do something, and actually doing it.

We (Deb and I) said we would do P90X, and we actually did it.

I said I would do a weekly chapter summary, and I didn't do it.

...

I am going to apply this to my own Christian life.  I am a long-time, long-term, committed follower of Jesus Christ, as I understand Him in my 21st century, Canadian, Evangelical context.  I have said the "right" things and am accepted as a member of our local church.

But am I "actually" living as a Christian?  What would that mean?

First of all, it has nothing to do with me not sinning.  If holiness in our lives was a prerequisite for "actual" Christianity, none of us could get started.  We may asymptotically approach that goal, but that would be an outcome of our Christian walk, not the means of it.

Am I a public, outspoken, obvious evangelist and "good-deed doer"?  Have you read Matthew 6?  We are to do our good deeds in private.  So that's not it.

So my "not smoking, not drinking, not dancing, not chewing" doesn't get me there.  And my Sunday morning attendance doesn't get me there either.

What does Jesus "actually" want?

I am committing (ha!) to following up on this post.  But I'm going to leave it there for now.

What do you think "Actual Christianity" would mean?  And what have we added on to it, that hides the truth?

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Discipline

It seems as if we have removed external discipline from the menu.  No physical aggression, no emotional harm, no "micro-aggression" that might cause even the slightest discomfort.

So we are left with self-discipline, and for training others (like children or students), hope (which is not a strategy).

Perhaps some of us who are trying to find a way to navigate this culture as Christians should stop trying to impose discipline on others, and do a better job of disciplining ourselves.  Perhaps the fruit of a life of the Spirit may create some space in our culture for our anachronistic beliefs.

One of the ways that I am learning about discipline is by embarking on a workout program.  Actually, my wife and I are six weeks into P90X.  I am more flexible than I have ever been in my life, and my average weight in the morning has dropped about 4-5 pounds.  But the real lesson is in telling our bodies that we are going to do this painful thing, without giving our lazy bodies an option or an out.

That's discipline.

Those of you who know me personally know our family lives in a large log home we built ourselves.  It is unfinished but it has been our home since we started building in 2008.

The next lot over is another log home, built with love and care by an enterprising professional as a weekend retreat.  It took a lot longer to erect, and is still not liveable. 

A couple of lots away is a mostly empty lot, with some preliminary work done, but no structure.  The owners have come for weekends, but never stayed.

We stayed.  We sold our city home and gave ourselves no option.  We have a house.

The secret of discipline seems to be commitment, not giving ourselves an option.

I am investigating the Spiritual Disciplines.  The bases for my research are four authors: Dallas Willard ("The Spirit of the Disciplines" which I have not yet read), James Bryan Smith ("Good and Beautiful God"), Richard J. Foster ("Celebration of Discipline") and John Eldredge ("Desire/Waking the Dead" to start).  I own the latter three works and am going to do a (re)read-through, with a weekly report on what I am learning. 

There are others learning about self-discipline through the scientific method.  "The Power of Habit" by Charles Duhigg, and "Hooked" by Nir Eyal are two books on manipulating our own behaviour in order to remove old habits and create new ones.  I will be exploring those books in parallel.

I invite you to come along.  If you would like these posts delivered via email, sign up here.  I have also created a private Facebook group for further discussion, which will be open to email subscribers only.

My next post will be about "Meditation", from Richard J. Foster's Celebration of Discipline.  I will also include a signup for Faithful Workouts, a free program of workouts and diet plans from a Christian perspective.  I will be alternating between spiritual disciplines and habit formation from neuroscience, partially based on feedback from you.  So please sign up, and I'll see you in the comments below, or in the Facebook group.

Shalom,

Dave Block
North Creek