Discipline to go on.

When is it that our past, as abominable as it may have been, becomes a tool to be used for good.

There is so much living that goes on between these two events that one day, in the midst of a circumstance, you find that you're beginning to use the memories of past mistakes and wrong choices as sign posts or markers of how far you have come.

If I hurt someone irreparably and had to live with the consequences of my actions it would be a very difficult road to walk. Repentance and forgiveness would have to take place. Months and years would go by. My life would go on. I would change inwardly. Most people wouldn't even notice the change. My close friends would notice. Yes, they would notice because they would see how, because of God's grace and forgiveness, I had learned to be a different person. More disciplined. More aware of my weaknesses. Yes, much more in tune with my frailties.

My life would go something like this. Each time I made a right choice, there would be a marker put up. Each time I chose to be taught a new lesson, another marker would be placed and perhaps a lesson would be learned that I had not chosen! Life would continue. New things learned. My need for God would grow more and more deeply. All those markers would be set out on the road I had traveled and I could look back and see all the various things that had happened to me, in order for a marker to be placed.

I know most of this probably doesn't make any sense to anyone, but it does to me. I guess that's all that matters when it comes to trying to put down ones thoughts. It makes sense to me.

Anyway, I got to thinking about all of this today as Pastor spoke about discipline in our lives and how we need it. How we chaff and pull at the constraints that we perceive to be upon us but in reality those turn out not to be constraints at all. I think they turn out to be like finding the yoke that Christ speaks of when he says to, "put my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." We tend to get so tied up in ourselves and trying desperately to free ourselves, that we forget that Christ didn't intend to tie us up and bind us. He said the yoke was there to help us. Not hinder.......just as the discipline is there to help us, to keep us in the rhythm of life, so that those rhythms become forces that help us to grow and learn and gain wisdom, not to bind us.

Discipline. It's necessary.

Pastor also read from Proverbs 5. The writer tells us to stay away from those things that would hurt us. We need to do that. We need to be aware of our surroundings, to look back on those sign posts of our lives to see how far we have come. The markers that said "TROUBLE", should be there for our good and we should be aware of why it was marked that way in the first place. We need to remember those markers and recall how those "trouble markers" have actually helped us along the way.

Another thing...............when we find ourselves trusting another human being with our frailties, we begin to learn how to be accountable. That's hard. Being accountable for our actions to another, makes us almost too human. That person will see us at our worst and that's hard on the ego. It's humbling.

Accountability............and humility. Also necessary.

Why are we so bent on destruction. Why do we insist on doing those things that would harm us. We need to stay completely away from those things that would destroy us, whatever those things would be. Greed. Lust. Jealousy. They destroy.

The Bible offers us words of life and instruction. We need to heed them.

Isaiah 32:3 "Then the eyes of those who see will no longer be closed,
and the ears of those who hear will listen."

These were simply a few thoughts that were mulling over in my mind today.