discipline

The older I become, the more I recognize the truth of Jesus' words as they apply to life in general. This morning I read the following in Matthew 7:

 “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.

The word "narrow" implies focus and discipline. Interestingly, in Proverbs, we discover the following wisdom:

Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.

The phrase "train up" in the original Hebrew means "to narrow". Parents have the responsibility to bring raise their children in a disciplined (a narrow, focused place) manner. Now before you react to word discipline, let me explain the concept of discipline. Discipline is not arbitrary punishment although at times punishment may be part of discipline. Discipline is usually painful in some manner but the purpose of discipline is not to inflict pain.

My daughter coaches high school girls soccer. During preseason, the coaching staff worked on conditioning. The forced the girls to do sprints beyond what they thought possible. Was the coaching staff cruel in their requirements? It would have been cruelty had there not been a goal in mind - to prepare the players to outlast the competition in a soccer match.

In the second and third games of the season, the painful conditioning drills paid off. They had a game on a Friday evening against a team that they had never beaten. The game ended in a draw after two periods of overtime. At the end of the game, the girls still had the stamina to play well. The very next day they had one of the most important matches of the season against the team picked to win the league. Once again they went into overtime, this time to come away with a win.

In August, the coaching staff provided a narrow, disciplined place for the players. Of course there were complaints, without a doubt there was pain. The coaching staff could have been considered mean-spirited, forcing the girls to abandon what they wanted to embrace the rigors and pain of disciplined conditioning. Yet the discipline was for a purpose.

The realities of high school girls soccer parallel the realities of the kingdom of God. Far too frequently, people miss the supernatural realm of God and his overwhelming goodness because His way of discipline feels too narrow. If we are to discover life, we must submit to the disciplinary hand of God. To the god of self, the hand of God feels far too restrictive. The broad way feels much more comfortable. Unfortunately, it never leads to life.