Being a Disciple Requires Discipline

“The problem with everyday life is it’s so daily.” I don’t know who said that originally, but I’ve thought it many times. Life seems easy during the exciting moments – special events, lavish parties, vacations, travel to exotic locations. But the mundane functions of daily living can be hard. 

 

Emerging bed in the morning, getting cleaned up, eating a quick breakfast (if you have time), going to work, carrying out responsibilities and trying to solve problems, heading home to decompress from the day’s demands, then going to bed to do it all over again in the morning. Indeed, everyday life is so daily!

 

The spiritual life is similar. We might have a ‘mountaintop experience’ from time to time, we might hear a sermon that inspires us or hear a song that stirs our heart, but the reality of living for Jesus Christ every day doesn’t ensure thrills every minute. It’s a matter of obedience, faithfulness – and discipline – in the midst of what’s mostly mundane.

 

I like how my favorite devotional writer, Oswald Chambers, expressed it: “[it requires] the supernatural grace of God to live 24 hours of every day as a saint, going through drudgery, and living an ordinary, unnoticed, and ignored existence as a disciple of Jesus…. We have to be exceptional in the ordinary things of life, and holy in the ordinary streets, among ordinary people – and this is not learned in five minutes.”

 

What Chambers is talking about is discipline, a determination of heart and mind to pursue God no matter what distractions or obstacles we encounter. Jesus offered a succinct description of what this looks like: “If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me” (Luke 9:23). To “deny himself and take up his cross” means to die to oneself, to say no to anything and everything that could steer us off course in our walk with the Lord.

 

We’re in the middle of football season, and those of us who are fans spend considerable time watching games featuring our favorite teams. We admire the speed, athleticism and skill on display (hopefully more by our team than the other). But what stands out most – or should – is discipline.

 

Offensive linemen get into their set positions and remain still until the ball is hiked. If they don’t, the referees are quick to toss their yellow penalty flags. Quarterbacks, running backs, receivers all take their positions as well. Once Mr. QB has the ball, everyone moves as the called play dictates, seeking to move the ball toward the opponents’ goal line. The running back must go in the right direction and receivers must follow their prescribed routes. Without discipline, the play won’t succeed. 

 

However, much of the discipline football players exert goes unseen, taking place long before game day. Practice, practice, practice. Doing the same things over and over until they become second nature. Add to that the hours of physical training, lifting weights, meetings, memorizing the playbook. Daily drudgery, designed for success on the field.

 

This principle is vitally important for all who desire to be disciples of Jesus Christ – true followers, learners, and spiritual reproducers. Just before His ascension to heaven, Jesus commanded, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations…teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20). And to make disciples, as He instructed, one must first be a disciple. And you can’t be a disciple without discipline.

 

Unlike football or other sports, following Jesus isn’t a pastime, or a casual pursuit. As the apostle Paul wrote in Acts 17:28, “For in Him we live and move and have our being.” These days we hear a lot of talk about one’s identity. For followers of Christ, He should be our identity.

 

For Paul, this was his passion, his motivation, the thing that drove him through the ups and downs of life – and he experienced many of both. Writing to believers in ancient Philippi, Paul expressed what we might consider his mission statement: “I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, and so, somehow, to attain the resurrection from the dead” (Philippians 3:10-11).

 

But Paul was quick to note that he hadn’t arrived, that his everyday goal of becoming more and more like Christ – and less and less like the person he was before encountering Him – was yet to be achieved. With honesty and humility, he stated: 

“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 took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it…. I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:12-14).

 

Whether we’ve been following Jesus for a week, a few months, a year, or many years, we should take Paul’s words to heart. We’re still ‘in process,’ and therefore we must press onward.

 

The psalmist wrote, “This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 118:24). Whatever the day brings, we can have confidence that it’s another day God has given to us. With discipline we can grow in our faith and revel in opportunities to serve the Lord and those He sends our way.  

Huddles Are Good, But They Shouldn’t Be Home

Summer has barely begun, but I’m ready for football. The period between the last bowl games and the start of the next season sometimes seems interminable. March Madness is already a distant memory, baseball’s claim to “national pastime” status has passed, NASCAR’s heyday is also history, and even though soccer’s popularity is on the rise, I’m not among its advocates. So if you ask, “Are you ready for some football?” my answer is, “Uh-huh. Absolutely.”

Which brings me to the subject at hand. For many years, a central element of football has been the huddle. The quarterback gathers his offensive teammates around him and…tells guy jokes. No, that’s not right. And they’re not gossiping about the players on the opposite side of the ball. The huddle is where the next play is called, whether it’s a run, pass, or option.

One distinctive about the huddle is the team doesn’t stay there. They listen intently to the signal caller’s instructions, then “break the huddle” and go to their respective positions on the line of scrimmage, ready to carry out their responsibilities. Hopefully the result will be moving the football down the field, ultimately into the end zone.

And that’s important – the breaking of the huddle. I’ve never heard of football players, even during road games in front of hostile crowds, pleading, “Please, guys, let’s just stay here in the huddle! The fans out there are mean, they’re saying nasty things, and the other team doesn’t look too friendly either. So let’s just stay in the huddle.”

Huddles are good. But that’s not where the game is played.

There’s an interesting parallel for those of us who attend church services every week. Years ago, someone referred to worship assemblies as “holy huddles,” where believers gather, sacred songs are sung, prayers are uplifted, and inspiring messages are presented. Often these activities get us fired up, convinced about what a great team we are – God as the Coach, and the rest of us as faithful teammates, eager to carry out His instructions.

But then it happens. The service ends, the music is over, and we have to go out the doors into the real, sometimes hostile world. “Let’s get back in the huddle!” we’re tempted to cry out. It seems so safe, non-threatening there. We’re pretty much in one accord, unlike the strife-riddled world outside the sanctuary. But God didn’t make us for the huddle.

Jesus gave the first hint of this when He assigned His disciples their initial training mission. “And he called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits” (Mark 6:7). In effect the Lord was saying, “You know that stuff I’ve been teaching you? Well, I want you to go out and start putting it into practice. Teach others what you have been learning.”

At the end of his time on earth, Jesus clearly stated what He expected His followers to do. “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations…teaching them to obey what I have commanded you…” (Matthew 28:19-20). “Out there,” far beyond the walls of what author Joe Aldrich called “the stained-glass aquarium.” If the disciples had been football players, Jesus would have commanded, “It’s time for you to leave the huddle.”

But where were they to go? The Lord explained that, too. “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). In a word, Everywhere. Which means we can’t just hang out at the church, no matter how warm and comfy it seems. God’s mission for us is out there – our homes, neighborhoods, towns and cities, across the country, even around the world, if given that opportunity.

During a football game, good things can happen in the huddle, especially when the winning play is called. But to execute the play, players have to break the huddle. For us, worship services should be where the quarterback (the pastor) calls the plays from the playbook (the Bible) that the Coach (God) has so meticulously assembled. Then we have to break the holy huddle and execute the plays. Just as no touchdowns are scored in the huddle, most of God’s work isn’t accomplished in the worship center.