“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.
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